WI No Bone Wars

This is what I'm talking about. What if Othniel Charles Marsh died during a dig in 1871? Would this likely mean that Edward D Cope would dominate paleontology and evolutionary theory in the latter 19th Century? What would be the implications of this?

Thanks to Olaloaf for the idea ;)

What if the Bone Wars never occur?...

Either Marsh or Cope die in the midst of the Indian Wars, leaving one or the other to dominate the field of American paleontology for the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

It's science-y, it's full of cowboys and indians and adventure, and it's got dinosaurs. What more could you want?
 
Well, whe put the small head on T-rex 100 years earlier. Whe have the more modern Uprite posture years earlier [instead of the Gator sprawl].
This means that the Bird/Warm-Blooded hypothesis, get proposed earlier, and is more accepted sooner.
 
Well, whe put the small head on T-rex 100 years earlier. Whe have the more modern Uprite posture years earlier [instead of the Gator sprawl].
This means that the Bird/Warm-Blooded hypothesis, get proposed earlier, and is more accepted sooner.

Well, considering the theory was first proposed in 1868, this actually seems very plausible and interesting :)
 
Not sure there was a whole lot of science in the bone rush, just a bunch of fossils being blasted out of the mountainside. I lot of those fossils would not have been found at the time, and thus more methodical paleontologists might have found them (or fossil poachers) and a better fossil record would be in our hands. Fortunately, the bone rush in China isn't as haphazard as the one in the Old West.
 
A lot of those fossils would not have been found at the time, and thus more methodical paleontologists might have found them (or fossil poachers) and a better fossil record would be in our hands

When do you see this happening?
 
When do you see this happening?

The actual serious science? I'd say sometime in the 1960s, maybe the late 50s. Up until that point, dinosaurs were just seen as big lizards. Newer, smaller fossils were discovered that changed the established order. Odd thing is, some priest discovered fossilized footprints before the name Dinosaur was coined and assumed they belonged to some giant, flightless bird. Maybe no bone rush means that when a complete Tyrannosaur is found, it'll be seen as a giant bird, instead of bending and breaking the tail to make them hobble like kangeroos (what bonehead though a T-Rex walked upright like that?).
 
Like I said though, the theory that the dinosaurs were closer to birds dates back at least to 1868 by Thomas Henry Huxley; all that's needed to bring the theory up is sufficient fossil records. So I'd think there's potential for moving up the theory's rise a great deal more.

I'm also still wondering what the effects of Edward Cope's greater standing would be -- this guy was a major league racist, and it showed in his writings on evolution. What would the impact on science be?

For that matter, consider an alternate OP where Cope is killed, and it's Marsh who goes unopposed -- would biology of the time be less racist?

Which approach is more interesting?
 
Probably not a lot other than make the history less interesting however maybe the alterative would be to have it get a bit out of hand and one of them hires a gunslinger who shoots the other. I am surprised no one has made a Western out of the Bone Wars except that things stopped short of a shooting match. Maybe it could have been tagged along to the Bronco series as he seems to have ended up in a lot of major Western incidents from the demiose of the James Gang to the Lincoln County Cattle War
 
So, not much hope of a TL, you think? :(


Not really a whole lot of material to make one, at least I don't think so. Rearranging the times when parts of the fossil record were uncovered won't have that much of an impact on the world as a whole, though acadamia will feel the sting.

But, if you're up for a challenge, then run with it.
 
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