Edward Drinker Cope was not exactly known for his sunny disposition. One of the key players in the “Bone Wars” of the late 19^th century, his long-running feud with fellow bone sharp Othniel Charles Marsh is the stuff of scientific legend. The two former friends tussled over everything from fossil sites to the naming rights of extinct creatures, with their embarrassing spat spilling into public view via The New York Herald in 1890.

Marsh was not the only source of regular discomfort and irritation Cope faced. In the early 1990s, photographer Louis Psihoyos and writer John Knoebber borrowed the...