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History of Paleontology: The Bone Wars

In this one time class, students will learn about the infamous and destructive rivalry between Paleontologists Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope in the late 1800s
Chidumebi Ikechi Njoku-Browne
Average rating:
4.9
Number of reviews:
(846)
Class

What's included

1 live meeting
55 mins in-class hours

Class Experience

US Grade 4 - 7
Students will learn about the explosive rivalry between Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope.
The topics covered will be as follows:
1) The lack of popularity of dinosaurs at the time
2) How the railway would aid paleontology
3) Cope and Marsh's early friendship and the Hadrosaurus
4)Marsh's New Jersey fossil swindle
5)Cope's Elasmosaurus mistake
6)Marsh & Buffalo Bill vs. Cope & Ferdinand Hayden
7)The Unitatherium fight
8)Marsh, Darwin and the Hesperonis
9)Marsh's attempted thefts of Cope's fossils
10)Fossil destruction, the loss of hundreds of fossils through pickaxes and dynamite
11)Marsh makes Cope bankrupt
12)The US Government vs Paleontology itself
13)Cope's medical malaise and Charles R. Knight
14)Marsh dies of Pneumonia
My class will be structured along the historical timeline of these two men.
I will teach using mostly slides and images.
My teaching style can be described as interactive.
Learners will get to interact with me through a mixture of lecture and discussion.
No required experience or knowledge needed.
Learning Goals
Students will learn about the history of the bone wars and the two men who, through their actions, made dinosaurs the most popular prehistoric creature in the late 19th century public eye.
learning goal

Other Details

Parental Guidance
This does cover subjects such as war and colonialism/manifest destiny as the two historical figures did make explotative use of this.
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Sources
Donovan, Stephen K., and David N. Lewis. "Fossils Explained 35." Geology Today 17, no. 3 (2001): 115-20. doi:10.1046/j.0266-6979.2001.00285.x. Gray, Susan Heinrichs. Paleontology. Scholastic Library Publishing, 2012. Marsh, O. C. "I.—The Gigantic Ceratopsidæ, or Horned Dinosaurs, of North America." Geological Magazine 8, no. 05 (1891): 193. doi:10.1017/S0016756800187813. "Hadrosaurus." Journal of Natural History Series 4 3, no. 14 (1869): 171. doi:10.1080/00222936908695908. Colbert, Edwin H. JSTOR. Accessed April 12, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4064414?uid=2134. Osborn, Henry Fairfield, Helen Ann. Warren, and Charles Robert Knight. Cope: Master Naturalist; the Life and Letters of Edward Drinker Cope, with a Bibliography of His Writings Classified by Subject; a Study of the Pioneer and Foundation Periods of Vertebrate Paleontology in America,. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1931. Osborn, Henry Fairfield, Helen Ann. Warren, and Charles Robert Knight. Cope: Master Naturalist; the Life and Letters of Edward Drinker Cope, with a Bibliography of His Writings Classified by Subject; a Study of the Pioneer and Foundation Periods of Vertebrate Paleontology in America,. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1931. "Biography of O. C. Marsh." Geographical Review 30, no. 4 (October 1940): 702-03. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/210558?searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dothniel%2Bmarsh%26acc%3Doff%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff&Search=yes&searchText=othniel&searchText=marsh&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102034699561. Wheeler, W. H. "The Uintatheres and the Cope-Marsh War." Science 131, no. 3408 (1960): 1171-176. doi:10.1126/science.131.3408.1171. Wheeler, W. H. "The Uintatheres and the Cope-Marsh War." Science 131, no. 3408 (1960): 1171-176. doi:10.1126/science.131.3408.1171. Marsh, Othniel Charles. On the Gigantic Fossil Mammals of the Order Dinocerata. [New Haven, Conn.?]: [s.n.], 1873. Gregory, Joseph T. "The Jaws of the Cretaceous Toothed Birds, Ichthyornis and Hesperornis." The Condor 54, no. 2 (April 1952): 73-88. Johnson, Rebecca L. Battle of the Dinosaur Bones: Othniel Charles Marsh vs. Edward Drinker Cope. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2013.
Joined June, 2019
4.9
846reviews
Profile
Teacher expertise and credentials
I studied paleontology under Philip Currie at the University of Alberta. I have gone on several digs in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota and have worked in the Deep Time department of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

Reviews

Live One-Time Class
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$12

per class
Meets once
55 min

Completed by 16 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 9-14
1-9 learners per class

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