Tells the story of two nineteenth-century paleontologists who used questionable tactics as they tried to outdo each other in collecting dinosaur bones.

Relates the competition between Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope to discover more fossils, name more species, and publish more papers that brought out the best and worst in them and provided the world with a new view of life on Earth.

Edward Drinker Cope was a charming man with a passion for old bones. Othniel Marsh was a stickler for procedure when he studied his fossil finds. They started as friends, sharing ideas and information, but after Marsh tried to poach Cope's digging site, they became bitter enemies. Their decades-long feud fueled their desire to dig up more bones, to discover new species, and to find ever bigger and more unusual dinosaurs. Through their competition, the two men laid a far-reaching foundation for the brand-new field of palentology. A fascinating story told with an engaging narrative technique, and well complemented by period photographs and drawings, a map, a time line, and an author's note.

Tells the story of fossil hunters Cope and Marsh, and how their early friendship turned into the most famous fossil feud of all time.

E. D. Cope and O. C. Marsh were 19th-century paleontologists whose friendship couldn’t withstand their professional rivalry. Their competitive natures led to the frenzied unearthing of hundreds of dinosaur fossils across North America, many of which can still be seen in museums around the world. The captivating tale of these scientists unfolds in this absorbing book, which also includes a timeline, sidebars, and fact boxes offering much information about paleontology, dinosaurs, and excavations as well as photographs and images to further elucidate essential science concepts.

It was an age of counterfeit giants, corrupt politicians, and intrepid pioneers. It was a time of scientific ferment. The second half of the 19th century — the so-called Gilded Age — was a time when Americans were exploring the West and building a nation which stretched from coast to coast. It was also when scientists began finding dinosaur fossils across the western half of the nation. Could the answer to the history of life and the proof of evolution be found in these bones? That was the question two young American paleontologists — Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh — set out to answer. But what began as a friendly contest quickly turned into a bitter rivalry that would spill over into American science and politics and rage relentlessly for nearly three decades. Despite their Gilded Age celebrity, the names of Cope and Marsh have disappeared into the recesses of the library and archive. InThe Gilded Dinosaur, Mark Jaffe exhumes from those archives the notes, journals, and letters of these two great opponents to reanimate and retell one of the most fierce rivalries in the history of science.

Contains a graphic novel that presents a fictionalized historical tale of two late-nineteenth century scientists who fight over the discovery of dinosaur bones.