万物简史 第117期:势不两立的科学(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.

这事儿也标志着两人间一场对抗的开始。对抗变得越来越激烈，越来越肮脏，而且还很可笑。有时候，竟然卑鄙到一方的发掘人员向另一方的发掘人员投掷石块的程度。有一次，有人发现柯普在撬开马什的箱子。他们在文章中互相污辱对方，瞧不起对方取得的成果。科学往往是——也许从来是——在对抗之中发展得更快、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.

在随后的几年里，通过两个人的共同努力，美国已知的恐龙种类数量从9种增加到将近150种。普通人说得出的每一种恐龙——剑龙、雷龙、梁龙、三角龙——差不多都是他们两人中的一位发现的。不过有一个值得注意的例外，霸王龙是巴纳姆布朗在1902年发现的。不幸的是，他们干得过于拼命，过于草率，往往把已经知道的当做一项新的发现。他俩“发现”一个名叫“尤因他兽”的物种不下22次。他们乱七八糟的分类，别人花了几年时间才整理出来，而有的至今还没有整理清楚。