萬物簡史 第117期:勢不兩立的科學(25)

It also marked the start of a war between the twothat became increasingly bitter, underhand, andoften ridiculous. They sometimes stooped to oneteam's diggers throwing rocks at the other team's.Cope was caught at one point jimmying open cratesthat belonged to Marsh. They insulted each other inprint and each poured scorn on the other's results.Seldom—perhaps never—has science been drivenforward more swiftly and successfully byanimosity.

這事兒也標志著兩人間一場對抗的開始。對抗變得越來越激烈，越來越骯臟，而且還很可笑。有時候，竟然卑鄙到一方的發(fā)掘人員向另一方的發(fā)掘人員投擲石塊的程度。有一次，有人發(fā)現柯普在撬開馬什的箱子。他們在文章中互相污辱對方，瞧不起對方取得的成果?？茖W往往是——也許從來是——在對抗之中發(fā)展得更快、更有成果。

Over the next several years the two men between them increased the number of knowndinosaur species in America from 9 to almost 150. Nearly every dinosaur that the averageperson can name—stegosaurus, brontosaurus, diplodocus, triceratops—was found by one or theother of them. The notable exception being the Tyrannosaurus rex, which was found byBarnum Brown in 1902. Unfortunately, they worked in such reckless haste that they oftenfailed to note that a new discovery was something already known. Between them they managedto "discover" a species calledUintatheres anceps no fewer than twenty-two times. It took yearsto sort out some of the classification messes they made. Some are not sorted out yet.

在隨后的幾年里，通過兩個人的共同努力，美國已知的恐龍種類數量從9種增加到將近150種。普通人說得出的每一種恐龍——劍龍、雷龍、梁龍、三角龍——差不多都是他們兩人中的一位發(fā)現的。不過有一個值得注意的例外，霸王龍是巴納姆布朗在1902年發(fā)現的。不幸的是，他們干得過于拼命，過于草率，往往把已經知道的當做一項新的發(fā)現。他倆“發(fā)現”一個名叫“尤因他獸”的物種不下22次。他們亂七八糟的分類，別人花了幾年時間才整理出來，而有的至今還沒有整理清楚。