TED-Ed Features Wyoming And The Biggest Feud In Scientific History

The most notorious fight in scientific history happened over dinosaur bones in Wyoming.

Known as The Bone Wars the story is now a featured TED-Ed video on YouTube, and you can watch it below.

The TED-Ed video shows the two egomaniacs and how their feud, stupid as it was, escalated into the most famous scientific battle in history. Both men made amazing discoveries that are still talked about today. You know many of the species they named. Yet their rivalry also caused the destruction of many finds as one afraid that the other might take credit for something.

In the 1860's paleontologists rarely collected their own specimens. It was common for collectors in the field to send fossils to a paleontologist for classification. Dr. Hayden's fossils were classified by Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897).

What is known as the Morrison Formation at Como Bluff once contained some of the world’s best-preserved dinosaur bones. Many were discovered by railroad workers, which promoted exploration since nothing was known about dinosaurs at the time.

Dinosaurs dominated the planet for about 165 million years, and many walked across what we now call Wyoming.

Forget the gold rush. Como Bluff became the site of the famous “bone rush” by fossil collectors. You can see Como Bluff is from Hwy 30, about 5 miles east of the small town of Medicine Bow. This site was one of the first major discoveries of dinosaur remains in the world.