dug before. Aside from finding more bones belonging to the flying reptile Pteranodon, Marsh discovered the skeleton of a "large fossil bird, at least five feet in height". The specimen was large, wingless, and had strong legs—Marsh considered it a diving species. Unfortunately, the specimen lacked a head. Marsh named the find Hesperornis regalis, or "regal western bird". Marsh headed back west with a smaller party the following year. In western Kansas, one of Marsh's four students, Thomas H. Russell, discovered a "nearly perfect skeleton" of Hesperornis. This specimen had enough of its head intact that Marsh could see that the creature's jaws had been lined with teeth. Marsh saw important evolutionary implications of this find, along with Benjamin Mudge's find of the toothed bird Ichthyornis. In an 1873 paper Marsh declared that "the fortunate discovery of these interesting fossils does much to break down the old distinction between Birds and Reptiles". Meanwhile, Marsh's relationship with his rival Edward Drinker Cope soured further after Cope accidentally received boxes of fossils, including the toothed birds, that were meant for Marsh. Cope called the birds "simply delightful", but Marsh replied with accusations Cope had stolen the bones. By 1873 their friendship dissolved into open hostility, helping to spark the Bone Wars. While Marsh would rarely go into the field after 1873, the collectors he paid continued to send him a stream of fossils. He eventually received parts of 50 specimens of Hesperornis, which allowed him to make a much stronger demonstration of an evolutionary link between reptiles and birds than had been possible before. Classification and Species Many species have been described in this genus, though some are known from very few bones or even a single bone and cannot be properly compared with the more plentiful (but also incomplete) remains of other similar-sized taxa. In many cases, species have been separated by provenance, having been found in strata of different ages or in different locations, or by differences in size. The first species to be described, the type species, is Hesperornis regalis. H. regalis is also the best known species, and dozens of specimens (from fragments to more complete skeletons) have been recovered, all from the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation (dating to the early Campanian age, between 90 and 60 million years ago). It is the only species of Hesperornis for which a nearly complete skull is