Catalog Number: QMNS 0721
Collected By: William W. Olson & Alfred G. Hayward
Location: Arizona, USA
During the late 1800s, two rival herpetologists were engaged in a heated battle. Though colleagues in a relatively narrow field, William W. Olson and Alfred G. Hayward despised each other. Clever and cutting, Olson was known for his ability to pinpoint the moral failings of others. Blunt and boisterous, Hayward was known for displaying his many moral failings proudly. Their animosity came to a head when Olson publicly humiliated Hayward at a zoological conference. Hayward responded with a lengthy article in a local newspaper, in which he listed all the salacious rumors about Olson.
The two men became obsessed with ruining the other, and so they waged a multi-year war on the battlefield of taxonomy. They each scoured the American West for new reptiles to discover, and more to the point, name after themselves. They each described and published hundreds of new species.
Many years later, after the dust had settled and both men were long underground, Dr. Sophie Canary reviewed the many taxa from this tumultuous time. She had long suspected that some of these new species were of questionable merit, if not hasty fabrications. After examining each man’s body of work, she discovered that Olson’s Frilled Sand Lizard and Hayward’s Red-Headed Lizard were actually the same lizard.
Now known as the Monster-Mask Lizard, this creature uses a modified neck frill to conceal its head within a false head. A row of eyespots completes the illusion. The male lizards use this display to intimidate rivals.
The museum now displays Olson and Hayward’s independent discoveries together. Though rivals in life, they’ve become unwitting collaborators in death.