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After the California Gold Rush of 1848, white settlers streamed west to strike it rich.
在1848年加利福尼亚淘金潮后，白人移民者涌向西方去淘金。
In addition to precious metals, they unearthed another treasure: dinosaur bones.
除了发现稀有金属之外，他们还挖掘了其他的宝藏，恐龙化石。
Two wealthy scientists in particular -- Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope -- competed to uncover these prehistoric monsters.
两个特别富有的科学家，奥斯尼尔·查尔斯·马什和爱德华·德林克·科普，互相竞争着去发掘这些史前怪兽。
Marsh and Cope were first to describe iconic creatures like Brontosaurus, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus.
马什和科普是第一个描述代表性生物的人，像雷龙、三角恐龙和剑龙。
But they also showcased the destructive whirlwind of profiteering and ambition that fueled American science during the late 1800s.
但与此同时他们也展现出了毁灭性般谋取暴利的旋风和在十九世纪晚期推动美国科学进程的野心。
Their rivalry, one of the most notorious scientific feuds in history, became known as the Bone Wars.
他们的对抗是史上特别臭名昭著的一次科学世仇，被熟知为“化石战争”。
Marsh was ill-tempered and had a knack for debunking falsehoods.
马什脾气很暴躁，并且对于击碎谎言很有一套。
One woman said that getting to know him was "like running against a pitchfork."
有个女人说了解他就像“和干草叉比赛跑”。
Cope, on the other hand, was charismatic and given to bold theorizing.
而科普是很有魅力的，而且勇于大胆推论的。
But he was also sarcastic and temperamental. By his own admission, he wasn't "constructed for getting along comfortably with the general run of people."
但他同时又喜欢挖苦人且喜怒无常。他自己承认，他并不是为和大多数人好好相处而生。
When Marsh and Cope first met in 1864, they were friendly, and each named a new species in the other's honor. But their relationship soon soured.
马什和科普初次在1864年相遇时，彼此相当地友好，并都以对方的名字命名了新的物种。但他们的关系很快就变质了。
In 1868, Cope took Marsh to a quarry near his home in New Jersey where one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons to date had recently been discovered.
在1868年，科普带着马什去了他新泽西家附近的采石场，最完整的恐龙头骨--截至当时为止--才刚被挖掘了出来。
Sensing an opportunity, Marsh paid the mine operators to send him the most interesting new finds.
马什嗅到了机会，付钱给了矿工，取得了最有意思的新发现。
Outraged, Cope accused Marsh of bribery. That same year, Cope showed Marsh his reconstruction of a new marine reptile called Elasmosaurus.
愤怒的科普指控马什贿赂，同年，科普向马什展示了他重建的新海洋爬行动物，叫做板龙。
Marsh immediately noticed that something was wrong: Cope had mistaken the creature's long neck for its tail.
马什很快注意到有些异样：科普错把这个生物的长颈当作了它的尾巴。
When Cope's mentor sided with Marsh, Cope was mortified. He tried to buy and destroy every copy of the article containing his blunder, but to no avail.
当科普的导师赞同马什时，科普感觉很羞辱，他试着买下并且毁掉所有印有他错误的文章，但并没什么用。
Their mutual resentment blossomed. After the transcontinental railroad was completed the following year, Cope and Marsh began scouring the American West for fossils.
他们相互的怨恨爆发了。在次年横贯大陆的铁路竣工后，科普和马什开始搜寻美国西部的化石。
They found riches the likes of which neither had dreamed.
他们发现了从未想象过的重要结果。
Relying on the help of Native American guides, Marsh made some especially significant discoveries,
依靠着美国土著向导的帮助，马什有了些特别重大的发现，
like ancient birds with teeth that are still celebrated as a missing link between dinosaurs and modern birds.
比如有牙齿的古代鸟类，它们仍然被认为是恐龙和现代鸟类之间缺失的一环。
Cope made important discoveries, too, but Marsh successfully invalidated many of them, showing them to be redundant with other known species.
科普也发现了重要的化石，但是马什成功地使其中的许多失效，展示这些化石其实是已知物种。
Enraged, Cope tried to secure priority for new findings by announcing them via telegram.
愤怒之下，科普想通过电报赶紧发布他的新发现。
He even purchased a respected journal so future publications could be rushed into print.
他甚至购买了一个有名气的期刊，来快速的发布他未来的发现。
But Marsh used his personal fortune to gain the upper hand, hiring a small army of fossil hunters to out-compete his rival.
但是马什用他个人的财富，招聘了一些私人化石猎手，从而胜过他的对手。
In 1878, Marsh bought an especially promising quarry in Como Bluff, Wyoming, from two frontier collectors.
1878年，马什从两名收藏家那里购买了一个有前景的、位于怀俄明州的采石场。
It yielded tons of fossils, including the near-complete skeleton of a gigantic dinosaur that Marsh named Brontosaurus.
结果在那里发现了数吨的化石，包括一个大恐龙的几乎完整的化石，这个恐龙被马什命名为“雷龙”。
Over the next 10 years, his men shipped him more than 480 boxes of dinosaur bones from Como alone.
在接下来的10年里，他的手下仅从科莫就给他运送了480多箱恐龙化石。
Marsh named dozens of new species. But his assistants could be ruthless in their quest to further Marsh's scientific ambitions.
马什命名了几十个新的物种，但是他的助理为了马什在科学领域的领先，使用了无情的手段。
They sometimes destroyed fossils just to prevent them from falling into Cope's hands.
他们有时摧毁了化石，仅仅是为了防止化石落入科普的手里。
Desperate to catch up with Marsh, Cope invested his dwindling fortune into silver mining. The gamble failed, and he was left nearly destitute.
为了赶上马什，科普把他日益减少的财富投资到了银矿挖掘中。但是他投资失败，陷入了贫困中。
While Cope contemplated selling his precious collection, Marsh was named lead paleontologist for the US Geological Survey.
在科普考虑卖出自己珍贵的收藏品时，马什被任命为美国地质调查局的首席古生物学家，
This well-funded branch of the government often sponsored Westward expeditions, giving Marsh even more resources to vanquish his rival.
这个经费充足的政府机构经常赞助向西的远征，给了马什更多击败他对手的资源。
The Bone Wars spilled into public view when Cope had a tabloid newspaper publish an article accusing Marsh of plagiarism, fraud, and corruption.
当科普在报纸上控诉马什侵权、诈骗、腐败时，公众才知道了这场化石战争。
Marsh fired back and the two further tarnished each other's reputations. Neither ever relented.
马什也不甘示弱，两人都在互相诋毁对方的名誉，并且都不肯让步。
When Cope died, he donated his skull to science, hoping to prove that his brain was larger than that of his enemy
科普去世后，他把自己的头骨捐献了出去，来证明他的大脑比他的对手要大。
Marsh never accepted the challenge. Although Marsh named more species than Cope, both men greatly expanded our understanding of evolution.
马什从未接受这个挑战。尽管马什发现的新物种比科普多，这两人都为人类对进化论的理解做出了不可磨灭的贡献。
But their egotistical one-upmanship reminds us that, in spite of its ideals,
但是他们自大的自我提醒了我们：尽管科学有理想，
science is a personal enterprise conducted by individual -- and at times deeply flawed -- human beings.
但科学是由人类个体进行的个人事业，而人往往存在严重的缺陷。
