Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards
Jim Ottaviani
 The novel is broken into three sections, with each titled after a portion of the novel's title: "Bone Sharps", "Cowboys", and "Thunder Lizards." The narrative is not continuous; there are significant gaps of time between each section. The novel begins with Othniel Charles Marsh on a steam train between New York City and New Haven, where he first meets the showman Phineas T. Barnum. While showing Marsh the Cardiff Giant (or rather a copy of it), which he cheerfully admits is a fraud when Marsh points this out, he refers with irritation about a "little cuss" of a professor who outbid him for some Mexican antiquities. An angry Marsh reveals he is that "little cuss" and he fully intends to write an article exposing the Giant as a fraud before Barnum can advertise it. In Philadelphia, Henry Fairfield Osborn is introducing artist Charles R. Knight to Edward Drinker Cope, a paleontologist whose entire house is filled with bones and specimens. Cope is commissioning a painting, something to "catch the spirit" of the sea creature Elasmosaurus (but has unwittingly mistaken its neck for a tail). Cope then leaves for the West, as the official scientist form the U.S. Geological Survey. On the way, he meets Othniel Charles Marsh, a fellow paleontologist, and shows him his dig site at a marl pit in New Jersey; after Cope leaves, Marsh talks to the owner of the land and pays him off to gain exclusive digging rights. At Fort Bridger, Wyoming, Cope meets Sam Smith, a helper to the USGS. During excavations, Cope finds some of the richest bone veins ever. Sending back carloads of dinosaur bones east by train, Cope encounters Marsh, who is heading out west as well. Marsh travels in style, lounging in coach while the rest of his team travels third class—Marsh even berates them for playing cards, saying it is "low class" and that Yale graduates should look more presentable. At Fort McPherson, Nebraska, Marsh meets "Buffalo" Bill Cody, who serves as their guide, along with the native American Indian tribe. Marsh discovers many new fossils, and promises to Chief Red Cloud that he will talk to the President of the United States about the situation of the Native Americans—they have been given spoiled food in exchange for their land. Back East, Knight has finished his reconstruction of Elasmosaurus. He and Knight return to the marl pits of New Jersey, but are forced away. Cope becomes furious and storms away when he learns Marsh has bought the digging rights, and published a paper revealing his interpretation of Elasmosaurus flawed. Some time later, John Bell Hatcher is backing out of paying his share of a card game by drawing his revolver. He has taken to gambling, as Marsh, who employs him as a bone hunter, is not providing him with enough funds. Meanwhile Marsh is lobbying to the Bureau of Indian Affairs on behalf of Red Cloud, but also visiting with the Geological Survey and President U.S. Grant, insinuating that he would be a better leader of the USGS than Cope. After learning about Sam Smith's attempted sabotage of Cope and once again receiving no payment from Marsh, Hatcher leaves the employ of Othniel. Marsh, now representing the survey, heads west with wealthy businessmen, scoffing at the financial misfortunes of Cope, whose investments have failed. Cope travels with Knight to Europe; Knight with the intention of visiting Paris zoos, Cope with the intent of selling off much of his bone collection. Cope has also spent much of his money buying The American Naturalist, a paper in which he plans to attack Marsh's dealings. Hatcher arrives in New York to talk about the find Laelaps; in his speech, he subtly hints at the folly of Marsh's elitism and backstabbing as well as Cope's collecting obsession. Cope and James Gordon Bennet, Jr, arrive in Washington later to discuss Marsh; Marsh arrives later, and is chastised for the bad press and expense he is bringing to the survey by pursuing his "birds with teeth" theory. Knight and his wife Annie discuss the feud, something they view as utterly ridiculous and becoming consumed with pointless point-scoring. As he discusses the feud, Knight is working on his famous painting Leaping Laelaps: two Dryptosaurus locked in unrelenting combat. Cope, meanwhile, returns to the west for more fossils, alone and at the severe expense of his health. Later, Marsh is attending a conference on telephony hosted by Alexander Graham Bell; it is here he learns that his USGS expense tab (to which he had been charging drinks) has been withdrawn, his publication has been suspended, and the fossils he found as part of the USGS are to be returned to the Survey. His colleagues now shun him, the Bone War feud having alienated them, and he is forced to go to Barnum to try to obtain a loan, with the very Mexican antiquities he'd outbid Barnum on before as collatoral. Barnum has no money to spare, and asks Marsh whether he hasn't got enough fossils yet: Marsh, in an unguarded moment, says he'll never have enough before trying to cover it up. At the same time, Osborn and Knight arrive at Cope's residence; Cope has died of illness. The funeral is markedly pitiful, with only a few Quakers and the two friends in attendance. Cope has bequeathed his remains to science, and requested to have his bones considered for the Homo sapiens lectotype. Back at Marsh's "wigwam", Marsh rejoins his guest, Chief Red Cloud, who is examining Marsh's luxuries, including a telephone, a chimney, and various bones and antiquities. Red Cloud's interest is piqued by a long tusk from a Mastodon, which the Shawnee call Yakwawi'ak. The Shawnee have an ancient legend, which Marsh relates. At one time there were giant men proportionate to the mastodons. However, when the great men grew few, the Great Spirit decided to destroy the Yakwawi'ak himself. All but one bull was killed; this last mastodon fled north, where he remains to modern times. In exchange for the loss of the Mastodon, the Great Spirit created the cranberry, a bitter reminder of the blood spilled. Chief Red Cloud remarks that it is a true story, but Marsh rebukes him, saying that science tells modern man that his ancestors were smaller, not larger, than him. Red Cloud, on his way out, responds, "It is not a story about science. It is about men." Knight and his wife, many years later, are taking their granddaughter Rhoda to the American Museum of Natural History. Knight, well-known to the staff, is visiting the closed-off areas to have a look at the new mammoth specimens: the girl, however, is eager to see more of her grandfather's paintings. During this, the staff are finally getting round to sorting out Marsh's long-neglected collection of fossils. Two of the workers discover Knight's Leaping Laelaps has been accidentally left in the storeroom yesterday. The painting is taken back downstairs while the workmen unknowingly leave Cope's skeleton and Marsh's parts behind: "The rest of this stuff is stayin' put for who knows how long, but we don't want that to get buried."