cope, e. d

"The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America's western territories even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. In much of the country, it is still illegal to espouse evolution. Against this backdrop, two monomaniacal paleontologists pillage the Wild West, hunting for dinosaur fossils while surveilling, deceiving, and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars. Into this treacherous territory plunges the arrogant and entitled William Johnson, a Yale student with more privilege than sense. Determined to survive a summer in the West to win a bet against his arch-rival, William has joined world-renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his latest expedition. But when the paranoid and secretive Marsh becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis, Edwin Drinker Cope, he abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a locus of crime and vice. William is forced to join forces with Cope and soon stumbles upon a discovery of historic proportions. With this extraordinary treasure, however, comes exceptional danger, and William's newfound resilience will be tested in his struggle to protect his cache, which pits him against some of the West's most notorious characters."--.

Follows the epic rivalry between scientists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh who raced to uncover dinosaur fossils in the American West during the nineteenth century. Describes how the two discovered dozens of major dinosaur species and founded the discipline of paleontology in America, but their thirty-year war wrecked both men's professional and private lives. Features sidebars, illustrations, and further reading.

In 1876 William Johnson used his summer break from Yale to work alongside renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on a journey across the United States in search of dinosaur fossils. But Marsh's paranoia gets the best of him, and he leaves William in Cheyenne, Wyoming when he becomes convinced the young man is working as a spy for Marsh's arch rival, Edward Drinker Cope. Stranded in a town writhing with crime, William joins forces with Cope and finds a treasure that puts his life at risk.

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 life stories of two nineteenth-century American dinosaur paleontologists and gives details of the bitter feud that existed between them.

Recounts the rivalry between two competing paleontologists, Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope, and how their bitter feud eventually destroyed their careers.