Rainger examines how and why vertebrate paleontology, a relatively marginal field of scientific inquiry, flourished at New York s American Museum of Natural History in the early 20th century. It focuses on Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857-1935), a prominent scientist and administrator who dominated vertebrate paleontology in that era and played a pivotal role in creating a leading institution and a manor program of research in that field. Born into a wealthy New York family, Osborn was in a unique position to follow vigorously his scientific interests in vertebrate paleontology and further...