OmegaMom

A few years ago, OmegaDad purchased a book called (I think) "Dinosaur Hunters", an in-depth retelling of the story of the feud between Edward Cope and O.C. Marsh, two paleontologists who set the standard for dinosaur fossil hunters in the 1800s.

For those who think that scientists are cold, aloof, logical, precise, and passionless, the story of these two would be an eye-opener.  We’re talking claim-jumping.  Races to publish data.  Vituperation and personal attacks galore.  Weapons drawn.  Dashes to be the first to dig in a promising new place.  Fights over who got to name what, whose reputation would be solidified down the centuries as The Premier Dinosaur Discoverer.  Nasty letters to the editor back and forth.  A feud played out in the public eye.

(Of course, as a person who grew up with scientists and scientifically-minded folk, I’m quite aware that the stereotype in the paragraph above just doesn’t cut it.)

One of my current regular blog-stops is ScienceBlogs.  You get it all there–climatology, biology, physics, computer science, zoology, oceanography, medicine, pharmacology–you name it, it’s there.  Along with lots of lively writers who are passionate about their fields.

This week, in the rotating blog headline spots, there was something about "armadillodiles".  I wasn’t interested, so skipped over it.

Then there was a rotating headline about Aetosaurs and Whistle-Blowing–The Saga Continues.  Well!  "Whistle blowing"?!  I had to dip in.

Dipping in led to this further article from a year ago. 

It turns out that there has been a controversy brewing in the U.S. paleontological world, starting small a few years ago, and growing.  The story, in a nutshell, is that the paleontologist who is in charge of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and is one of the editors of its journal, seems to have "jumped the gun" a number of times, citing other people’s work, work that was "in progress", taking the credit himself for the conclusions, and grabbing at chances to name specific fossil branches himself.  This includes claims that he cribbed info from unpublished masters’ theses, used information garnered from visits to other museums that were working on soon-to-be-published research, skipping over the peer-review process, and pretty much ran rampant over lots of younger paleontologists’ research.

This had been bubbling up in the professional email list for paleontologists.  It led to a variety of posts similar to the second one I linked (you need to read the comments, too!).  And then, the reason for the first post cited:  Nature Magazine, the stuffy crown prince of the natural sciences, has just published an article about the controversy.

A certain amount of stuff got posted afterwards, with titles such as Paleontologists Behaving Badly, Something’s Fishy About These Armadillodiles, Who’s Scooping Whom and Why This Matters, and Way to Represent Your Professional Community, Dude!

The entire affair seems redolent of the Cope/Marsh wars, an interesting perspective on scientific clashes, and also an interesting perspective in how Things Have Changed.  Once upon a time, the natural history world was filled with adventurers pushing each other out of the way, racing to be The First…enough so that "Around The World In 80 Days" is couched in those terms, a daring duel between scientific adventurers and scoundrels.

There you have it:  Dinosaur Wars, which I thought were a thing of the past, still exist.  The ethical scientists get creamed by a modern-day throwback.  Passions flare.  And it’s all about science!!!