Answer:
"The Bone Wars" is the conflict between two scientists and ended with a social and financial decline for both of them.
Explanation:
“Edward Drinker Cope” was from the “Academy of Natural Sciences” in Philadelphia and “Othniel Charles Marsh” was from the “Peabody Museum of Natural History” at Yale. Both the scientists used ways such as bribery, theft, destruction of bones, and even attacked each other in scientific publications only to ruin the reputation of the other.
The rivalry began at a fossil-collecting expedition. Marsh had bribed the pit workers to send all the found fossils to him and Cope had no idea about this.
Their relationship soured when Marsh pointed out that Cope had made a mistake in reconstruction of Elasmosaurus by placing the head where the tail should be placed. There was a sharp exchange of words and then they asked the Academy curator Joseph Leidy to decide, who was right. Cope’s mostly rushed in his work which led to errors in his work. Marsh used to often bribe people or bully Cope for his findings.
Soon they started attacking each other publicly through the newspapers. Because Cope and Marsh would never collaborate because of their enmity, they often published the same findings and same specimens under different names.