Bone Wars
The Excavation and Celebrity of Andrew Carnegie's Dinosaur, Twentieth Anniversary Edition
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Bone Wars
The Excavation and Celebrity of Andrew Carnegie's Dinosaur, Twentieth Anniversary Edition
About This Book
Foreword by Matthew C. Lamanna New Afterword by Tom Rea Less than one hundred years ago, Diplodocus carnegii ânamed after industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegieâwas the most famous dinosaur on the planet. The most complete fossil skeleton unearthed to date, and one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered, Diplodocus was displayed in a dozen museums around the world and viewed by millions of people. Bone Wars explains how a fossil unearthed in the badlands of Wyoming in 1899 helped give birth to the public's fascination with prehistoric beasts. Rea also traces the evolution of scientific thought regarding dinosaurs and reveals the double-crosses and behind-the-scenes deals that marked the early years of bone hunting. With the help of letters found in scattered archives, Tom Rea recreates a remarkable story of hubris, hope, and turn-of-the-century science. He focuses on the roles of five men: Wyoming fossil hunter Bill Reed; paleontologists Jacob Wortmanâin charge of the expedition that discovered Carnegie's dinosaurâand John Bell Hatcher; William Holland, imperious director of the recently founded Carnegie Museum; and Carnegie himself, smitten with the colossal animals after reading a story in the New York Journal and Advertiser. What emerges is the picture of an era reminiscent of today: technology advancing by leaps and bounds; the press happy to sensationalize anything that turned up; huge amounts of capital ending up in the hands of a small number of people; and some devoted individuals placing honest research above personal gain.
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Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword
- 1. Diplodocus carnegii
- 2. The Freehearted Frontier Hunter
- 3. The Most Colossal Animal
- 4. Culture in the Iron City
- 5. A Lizard in Wyoming Politics
- 6. Uncle Samâs Land
- 7. Hewn into Fragments
- 8. Some Good Luck at Last
- 9. The Ample Fossil Fields
- 10. Noble Champions of Truth
- 11. Patagonia
- 12. No More Reeds, No More Wortmans
- 13. Southern Dreams
- 14. When the Flag Drops
- 15. Heads and Tails
- 16. Celebrity
- Epilogue
- Afterword
- Milestones
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index