Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology is a 2005 graphic novel written by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by the company Big Time Attic.

The book tells a fictionalized account of the Bone Wars, a period of intense excavation, speculation, and rivalry in the late 19th century that led to a greater understanding of dinosaurs and other prehistoric life.

Bone Sharps follows the two scientists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Marsh as they engage in an intense competition for prestige and discoveries in the western United States.

In Philadelphia, Henry Fairfield Osborn introduces artist Charles R. Knight to Edward Drinker Cope, a paleontologist whose entire house is filled with bones and specimens.

Marsh discovers many new fossils, and promises to Chief Red Cloud that he will talk to the President of the United States about his people's situation.

Cope becomes furious when he learns Marsh has bought the digging rights and published a paper revealing his reconstruction of Elasmosaurus as flawed.

Marsh lobbies the Bureau of Indian Affairs on behalf of Red Cloud, but also visits with the USGS, insinuating that he would be a better leader than Cope.

Marsh, now representing the survey, heads west with wealthy businessmen, scoffing at the financial misfortunes of Cope, whose investments have failed.

Hatcher arrives in New York to talk about the find Laelaps; in his speech, he hints at the folly of Marsh's elitism and Cope's collecting obsession.

Jim Ottaviani published his first graphic novel in 1997,[2] and conceived the idea for Bone Sharps while working his day job as a librarian at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

[9] Some conversations, due to their private nature, were fictionalized; Ottaviani makes up Marsh's lobby to Congress and what happened during his meeting with President Grant, and P.T.

[11] A key plot point is fabricated for the purposes of dramatic irony: in the book, Marsh has his agent Sam Smith leave a Camarasaurus skull for Cope to find and mistakenly put on the wrong dinosaur.

Cannon and associates were forming a new production studio, "Big Time Attic"; Ottaviani mentioned he had a proposal he wanted to show them.

He explained that since the story was talking about "wide expanses of territory" and the American West, the artists at Big Time Attic wanted a more non-traditional landscape orientation.

[12] Klein's complaints focused on stiff art and the difficulty in telling some characters apart, but said these shortcomings did not affect the flow and reading.

[13] Other reviewers praised Ottaviani's inclusion of notable historical figures,[8] the educational yet entertaining feel of the work,[14] and expressive artwork.

[19] Author and professor Karen Gavigan recommended the book and Ottaviani's other work as a way to make the lives of famous scientists more accessible and offering chances for critical thinking.

[20] Ottaviani followed Bone Sharps with other lightly-fictionalized historical stories, including Levitation: Physics and Psychology in the Service of Deception and Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love.