The Great Fossil Enigma Read Online Free Page B

compete with his institution. In contrast, Scott was willing to give up all other finds in order to be the personal beneficiary of the conodont animals. This action was not particularly unusual. Most conodont workers remained in possession of those materials they collected and studied. They would want to know if someone else wanted to examine these objects and perhaps draw other conclusions. Excluding others from studying the objects, after these workers had made their own views known, might be fairly objected to, but this was not the case here. Scott's intentions become clearer later on.
    Scott's fretting over the payment made work in the quarry difficult. To break the deadlock, Melton gave Allen a down payment of $575 out of his own pocket. His department bailed him out for $200 of that. Melton explained to Scott, “It is a sticky situation and I don't particularly like it but feel obligated to finish it now that I have started on it.” Scott felt bad, and considered paying Melton, claiming it as the cost of a “bulldozer,” but he did not do so immediately. He had, however, “forced the issue” on Melton's master's degree and it had now been awarded. So at least the exuberant Melton might get a salary increase. But then Scott sent him $275. Melton was puzzled. Was this for the existing conodont animals? If so, he corrected Scott by pointing out that these belonged to the University of Montana. Melton asked Scott if he was planning to keep that material, but Scott explained that he simply needed a reason for paying a bill – for sending Melton money – as they could not pay themselves. It seems this was a bungled attempt to cover Melton's losses without admitting to it in the accounts. Scott said that he hoped in time the material would go to the National Museum.
    Melton was not alone in the field. He was aided by Montana-born Jack Horner, a student not long returned from Vietnam who would later gain international celebrity as a dinosaur expert. 16 Jean Lower of Michigan State was also there and would soon be offered an assistantship to work on the fossils. There were volunteers from Iowa and a party of two from the University of Pittsburgh who were looking for fossil fish but had turned up a conodont animal. Scott remained attentive to Melton's needs while desperately trying to catch up with the conodont literature on classification. On this subject he had puzzled a great deal. Then, in March, he realized that he had two different assemblages and thus two species of the animal.
    Scott was also starting to think about where their now completed paper would be published. He wrote to the Paleontological Research Institute, which published two major U.S. journals, selling the paper's significance and the need for copious illustration. “I do not believe that I am egotistical,” he said, “when I say to you that this is probably the most important paper ever prepared on conodonts. You may know that we have searched for this animal since 1856; and now that our search is realized, the paper deserves unusual attention in reference to publication.” He considered it “almost certainly [to] be the most referred to and possibly debatable paper of all conodont literature in the future.” The editor told Scott the paper would have to wait in line and that would mean that it would not be published until sometime in 1971. This level of delay was normal, but it was not unreasonable for Scott to think that a publisher might prioritize this paper simply to obtain it. As no such offer was forthcoming, Scott decided take his paper elsewhere. It was a decision that would cost him dearly.
    Near the end of the month, Scott received a telephone call from the NSF. It was not the news he expected: The foundation was willing to pay him fourteen thousand dollars, half what he had requested. Scott told Melton to cut back; they would need to concentrate on excavation. Of that money, twelve thousand