This spirited exchange sounded like a prelude to a spectacular confrontation between Osborn and Bryan at the Scopes trial. Osborn appeared to be gearing up for a clash with Bryan when, in a series of essays published in May 1925, he singled out the Great Commoner as the man who would be on trial in Tennessee (Osborn, 1925b). Late in June he was listed as one of eleven "scientists who will be called to testify in the defense of John T. Scopes." (Anon., 1925a)
Then a very odd thing happened, at least as far as the published record goes. As Boule (1928, p. 208) characterized it, "the silence descended" on Hesperopithecus at the end of June 1925. The Scopes trial was about to start, and a genuine American fossil hominoid from his home state could have, at the least, put Bryan and his colleagues on the prosecution on the defensive. Bryan, in fact, was prepared to take on Nebraska Man -- upon his arrival in Dayton on July 7, he repeated his comments belittling the "missing link" founded on a single tooth from Nebraska and, dredging up one of his favorite lines, told reporters that "these men would destroy the Bible on evidence that would not convict a habitual criminal of a misdemeanor." (Anon., 1925b, p. 6)
Five days later, just as the trial was beginning, Osborn produced another full-page defense of evolution in The New York Times (Osborn, 1925c). With Bryan's July 7 quote about the Nebraska tooth standing as a goad at the top of the article, Osborn nonetheless went through his entire argument without even a passing reference to Hesperopithecus.
What had happened? Quite simply, Hesperopithecus had come to the end of its short life, although most of the world would not learn of the demise for another two-and-one-half years.
