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About Othniel C. Marsh:
Othniel C. Marsh has the distinction of having named more "popular" dinosaurs than anyone else in paleontological history: every schoolkid knows about Allosaurus, Stegosaurus and Triceratops, but not many are as familiar with the more obscure discoveries (Goyocephale, anyone?) of other fossil hunters. During his career—much of it funded by his rich uncle, who funded a museum for him at Yale University--Marsh dug up dozens of dinosaurs, as well as prehistoric mammals and birds.
Besides his legacy of named dinosaurs, Marsh is best known for his role in the Bone Wars--his vicious rivalry with the paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, which started when Marsh (a bit too bluntly) informed Cope that he had placed the head of an Elasmosaurus skeleton on its tail, rather than its neck. Over the next two decades, the two wealthy scientists embarked on numerous digs, trying to one-up each other, and enriching our knowledge of prehistoric life in the process. (Like Cope, Marsh eventually had a dinosaur named after him, the small herbivore Othnielia.)
