Still going with this series, but nobody's told me to stop yet, so...
This one should more accurately be titled "Infamous Cats in Science", but that just doesn't have quite the same ring to it and I wanted to keep things consistent. At any rate, Cope and Marsh played a pivotal role in popularizing paleontology in the late 19th century and especially bringing to global notice the wealth of dinosaur fossils to be found in the American West--before the Bone Wars, most substantial paleontological finds had occurred in Europe.
I thought it would be fun to make them both black cats to show that, despite their bitter feuding, the two of them really weren't all that different, and could have - indeed, one might argue should have - been friends, if their stubborn pride and refusal to forgive each other hadn't gotten in the way. I'm not sure one can say whether or not they would have ultimately found more fossils if they had been cooperating, but they certainly both would have led much happier lives, which is more important.

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