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A review by 600bars
Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards by Jim Ottaviani
2.0
I don’t know much about the bone wars. In fact I realized I’ve never given much thought at all to the early days of finding dinosaur/prehistoric mammal fossils. Now I have a ton of questions and will need to seek out another source of information on this period in history. This graphic novel was incredibly difficult to follow, which is unusual for a graphic novel. Usually the reason for that is difficulty in distinguishing the characters, but that wasn’t my issue here. I just kept getting totally lost on the plot. Why was paleoartist Charles R Knight sorta the the main character even though nothing really happened to him and it wasn’t like the story was generally being told through his perspective. I am curious about how he studied the bones anatomy and the anatomy of currently living creatures to produce his paintings, so he’s another person I’m going to have to look into.
This is pretty fascinating material: two scientists, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh had a huge rivavlry/race to see who could collect the most fossils. They resorted to shady business to get digging rights. Spies, sabotage, planting fake samples in hopes of tricking the other into writing a scientifically shoddy article, etc. Many famous figures from the time period appear here, like PT Barnum, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Ulysses S. Grant. I couldn’t imagine congress today caring so much about the minutiae of a scientist’s spat, but I guess the US was still in the process of expanding into the interior at this time. All three of the main men, Cope Marsh and Knight, suspected that dinosaurs looked like huge chickens instead of formidable lizards. Why then did I only find out about them being feathered rather than scaly when I was in like middle school? Who decided that we had to keep the feathers under wraps?
The portions with Chief Red Cloud were fascinating. There’s the use of land for fossil digging and how Chief Red Cloud tried to parlay the geological survey into a better deal for his people. He shares with one of the dudes, Marsh or Cope, idk I don’t have the book with me, the legends and myths that fit with the scientific discoveries of the fossils. I am always fascinated by the truth of myth and other ways of understanding. I want to know more about how long humans have known about dinosaurs.
Anyway this certainly sparked a lot of curiosity and I’m gonna have to find a long book about the subject, but the execution of this story was lacking. I can’t even put my finger precisely on why, I just felt confused the entire time. Maybe I was hungry, but I’m comforted to see many reviews with the exact same complaint.
This is pretty fascinating material: two scientists, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh had a huge rivavlry/race to see who could collect the most fossils. They resorted to shady business to get digging rights. Spies, sabotage, planting fake samples in hopes of tricking the other into writing a scientifically shoddy article, etc. Many famous figures from the time period appear here, like PT Barnum, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Ulysses S. Grant. I couldn’t imagine congress today caring so much about the minutiae of a scientist’s spat, but I guess the US was still in the process of expanding into the interior at this time. All three of the main men, Cope Marsh and Knight, suspected that dinosaurs looked like huge chickens instead of formidable lizards. Why then did I only find out about them being feathered rather than scaly when I was in like middle school? Who decided that we had to keep the feathers under wraps?
The portions with Chief Red Cloud were fascinating. There’s the use of land for fossil digging and how Chief Red Cloud tried to parlay the geological survey into a better deal for his people. He shares with one of the dudes, Marsh or Cope, idk I don’t have the book with me, the legends and myths that fit with the scientific discoveries of the fossils. I am always fascinated by the truth of myth and other ways of understanding. I want to know more about how long humans have known about dinosaurs.
Anyway this certainly sparked a lot of curiosity and I’m gonna have to find a long book about the subject, but the execution of this story was lacking. I can’t even put my finger precisely on why, I just felt confused the entire time. Maybe I was hungry, but I’m comforted to see many reviews with the exact same complaint.