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99% Invisible

The Bone Wars

August 18, 2026 • 44m

Summary

⏱️ 15 min read

Overview

This episode explores the famous 'Bone Wars,' a bitter 19th-century rivalry between paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. Through their fierce competition to discover and name dinosaurs, these two scientists made groundbreaking discoveries that established American paleontology and filled natural history museums—but also committed sabotage, scientific errors, and ultimately destroyed federal funding for scientific research. Their feud, while petty and destructive, inadvertently created the public's enduring fascination with dinosaurs.

Introduction to the Bone Wars and Museum Visit

Actor and reporter Gillian Jacobs visits the American Museum of Natural History to explore the dramatic history of paleontology's most infamous feud. Deep in the museum's Big Bone Room, curator Dr. Michael Novacek introduces the story of two rival paleontologists whose behavior was far from noble. This feud, known as the Bone Wars, combined backstabbing, sabotage, and congressional hearings with groundbreaking dinosaur discoveries that would transform natural history museums and elementary school field trips forever.

  • Gillian Jacobs visits the Big Bone Room at the American Museum of Natural History, a fossil vault not open to the public
  • The Bone Wars story is well-known among paleontologists as part of the field's history, though not a noble one
  • The feud included backstabbing, sabotage, congressional hearings, bankruptcy, and massive dinosaur bone discoveries
" It's not a very noble history. They weren't very noble people. "

The Birth of Paleontology and American Scientific Inferiority

Paleontology as a formal science only emerged in the 18th century, dominated initially by Europeans like Mary Anning who discovered an ichthyosaurus at age 12. American scientists faced a cultural inferiority complex throughout the 19th century, seen as unsophisticated upstarts by their European counterparts. Despite North America being home to spectacular prehistoric specimens, American paleontology needed to prove itself worthy on the world stage, setting the stage for intense competition among ambitious researchers.

  • Paleontology as a formal science only began around the 18th century when Europeans started systematically studying fossils
  • Mary Anning discovered an ichthyosaurus skeleton at age 12 in 1812 along England's Jurassic Coast
  • American scientists had a cultural inferiority complex in the 19th century, not taken seriously by Europeans
  • North America was home to impressive prehistoric specimens but American paleontology needed to establish credibility
" The United States had kind of, I would say, a cultural inferiority complex for much of the 19th century. A lot of Americans saw themselves as being less erudite, less learned, right? Kind of a younger culture, a less sophisticated culture. And science was no exception. "

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