Newly discovered letters and translated German ode expand Texas
link to infamous Bone WarsSeptember 11th, 2012 in Other Sciences
/ Archaeology & Fossils Jacob Bolls fascination with fossils
prompted him to write in his native German an ode to Eryops, a
specimen he found for paleontologist Edward D. Cope. The poem is
housed at the American Museum of Natural History on a label on
the back of Eryops specimen No. AMNH 4183. Credit: Louis Jacobs,
SMU In the late 1800s, a flurry of fossil speculation across the
American West escalated into a high-profile national feud called
the Bone Wars. Drawn into the spectacle were two scientists from
the Lone Star State: geologist Robert T. Hill, now acclaimed as
the Father of Texas Geology, and naturalist Jacob Boll, who made
many of the state's earliest fossil discoveries. Hill and Boll
had supporting roles in the Bone Wars through their work for one
of the feud's antagonists, Edward Drinker Cope. A new study by
vertebrate paleontologist Louis L. Jacobs at Southern Methodist