source: internet
Early Dinosaur Discoveries in North America

The class Dinosauria was originally defined by Sir Richard Owen in 1842 in a two hour speech that reportedly held the audience captivated. The original dinosaurs of this new group were Megalosaurus, Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus. However, each of these animals was known from fragmentary specimens. It wasn't until the discoveries of dinosaurs in North America in the mid-19th century that people began to get a clearer picture of what dinosaurs looked like.

It is generally accepted that the first discovery of dinosaur remains in North America was made in 1854 by Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden during his exploration of the upper Missouri River.

Near the confluence of the Judith and Missouri Rivers Hayden's party recovered a small collection of isolated teeth which were later described by the Philadelphia paleontologist, Joseph Leidy in 1856 in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

However, a short two years later, Leidy had the honor of describing the first reasonably complete dinosaur skeleton the world would know, Hadrosaurus foulkii. Named after its discoverer William Parker Foulke, this specimen was recovered during quarrying of a sand pit in Haddonfield, New Jersey. The real significance of this specimen was in its limb proportions. For the first time scientists studying these animals could see that some dinosaurs were bipedal, a revolutionary thought for a reptilian posture. This specimen, now on display at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, was originally mounted in a free-standing bipedal pose by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins in 1868. The records for attendance at the Academy show that visitation increased three-fold with this new exhibit, testimony to the public's long-standing fascination with dinosaurs.

Dinosaur skeletons were found for the first time in abundance in the Garden Park area of Colorado and at Como Bluff, Wyoming, in the late 1870s. These specimens initiated the First Great Dinosaur Rush in North America, driven largely by the efforts of a Philadelphia paleontologist, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Marsh , a paleontologist from Yale University. These two men started as friends but became bitter rivals of legendary proportions, stories surrounding these two include armed field parties, spies, and intercepting shipments of fossils intended for the other. Many of these stories have been exaggerated with time but they clearly point out the bitterness of this rivalry. As a result of the tremendous collecting efforts of these two paleontologists the public became aware of the fascinating world of the Late Jurassic, and was presented the opportunity to know the grandest of all dinosaurs, the sauropods.

The Second Great Dinosaur Rush took place in the badlands of the Red Deer River in southern Alberta. Dinosaur remains had been known from this region as early as 1884 but it wasn't until 1910 that this region became an active collecting area. It was here that the second great collecting rivalry took place between Barnum Brown of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and C. H. Sternberg of the Geological Survey of Canada. However, unlike the rivalry between Cope and Marsh, this rivalry resembled more of a friendly competition. Also unlike the earlier efforts, the result of this collecting provided insights into the world of the Late Cretaceous.

another internet source
Edward Drinker Cope 1840-1897

Edward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and evolutionist. He was one of the founders of the Neo-Lamarkian school of evolutionary thought. This school believed that changes in developmental (embryonic) timing, not natural selection, was the driving force of evolution. Cope led many natural history surveys in the American West for the precursors of the U.S. Geological Survey. He was primarily a herpetologist and mammalogist and he described many genera and species that are still used today.
pdp 12/6/93
still another internet entry ---
Henry Fairfield Osborn 1857-1935

H.F. Osborn was a student of Cope. (hang around smart people) He was instrumental in expanding the exhibits and research program at the American Museum of Natural History. He led many fossil hunting expeditions in the American West and trained many of the vertebrate paleontologists in the early 20th century.

dp 12/6/93

AMERICANS: East is East . . .

1802: Pliny Moody: finds 'bird footprints' in W. MA. -- not identified until 1860
1854: Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden: finds teeth in MT

1856: Joseph Leidy: anatomist from U-Penn, named the first American dinosaurs from two teeth found by Hayden; Trachodon ('rough tooth' - plant ) Deinodon ("terror tooth" - flesh eater)
1858 -- Hadrosaurus "bulky lizard" discovered (Haddonfield, NJ) - a duck billed 'family'

1859 -- Charles Darwin {1809-1882} - reluctantly publishes his book - nov 24th
1860 -- Alfred Russel Wallace {1823-1913} - publishes his (identical idea); but darwin got to the publisher faster

1868 -- Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins: a sculptor, assembles the first mounted dinosaur skeleton (Hadrosaur) (Philadelphia) ; he made London's Crystal Palace (park) dinosaur statutes in 1854 (p127 dixon)

. . .and West and West

Edward Drinker Cope { NJ } (1840-97)

vs.

Orthniel Charles Marsh { Yale } (1831-99)

1870: Marsh showed Cope's skeleton of Elasmosaurus, a plesiosaur from Kansas had it's head on the wrong end. Ooops. Cope was brilliant but quick tempered ... and never recovered from this ego-crushing observation. The war was on.

1877: fossil feuding: on Como Bluff (11 km ridge); S. Wyoming two schoolmasters made finds.
* Arthur Lakes (from UK) found bones on a ridge at Morrison, CO & sent note to Marsh, but when he didn't respond, told Cope about them.
* O.W.Lucas found bones near Canyon City, CO and notified Cope

Fossil digs begin with vigor in CO / WY / MT, with jealousy and greed driving these two men to expand American's findings from 9 to l30 species in 20 yrs.
Cope discovered 56 and Marsh totaled 80.

== today it is more a 'battle of ideas' rather than a 'battle of bone tonnage.' That is, what can be inferred about their physiology and social behavior ?

9/25m/95 - 6/12w/96