Tooth and Claw

Written by Deborah Noyes

Two rivals clash in a fierce race to unearth the biggest dinosaur bones in the Wild West.

3.6/5 Goodreads · 43 ratings

160 pages· 27,643 words· Est. 4 hour read

$18.99Save 7%

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Bookroo's summary

In the untamed American West, paleontologists Edward Cope and Othniel Marsh engage in a fierce rivalry to unearth the largest dinosaur fossils. Their relentless pursuit of prehistoric giants not only shapes the field of paleontology but also consumes their lives. As they battle across wild landscapes and in the public eye, their obsession raises questions: What will they sacrifice for discovery? And who will emerge victorious in this bone war that captivates a nation?

From the publisher

The tale of the epic rivalry between two foundational paleontologists to find bigger and better bones in the American West, perfect for readers of Steve Sheinkin and Candace Fleming. Today we take for granted the idea that dinosaurs once roamed the earth. But two hundred years ago, the very concept of an extinct species did not exist. When an English scientist proposed in 1841 that Dino Saurs (“terrible lizards”) had come and gone, it was only a theory, a new way of explaining the “dragon” and “giant” bones scattered across the globe. But when proof turned up seventeen years later, it was not only incontrovertible; it was massive. Tooth and Claw tells the story of the feverish race between two brilliant, driven, and insanely competitive scientists–Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh–to uncover more and more monstrous fossils in the newly opened Wild West. Between them, they discovered dozens of major dinosaur species and established the new discipline of paleontology in America. But their bitter thirty-year rivalry–a “war” waged on wild plains and mountains, in tabloid newsprint, and in Congress–dramatically wrecked their professional and private lives even as it brought alive for the public a vanished prehistoric world.

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