"Ichthyornis" was one of the first Mesozoic avialans ever found and the first one known to have had teeth, making it an important discovery in the early history of paleontology. It remains important today, as it represents one of the closest non-avian relatives of modern birds, and one of a handful of Mesozoic bird relatives represented by numerous specimens. "Ichthyornis" was discovered in 1870 by Benjamin Franklin Mudge, a professor from Kansas State Agricultural College who recovered the initial fossils from the North Fork of the Solomon River in Kansas, United States. Mudge was a prolific fossil collector who shipped his discoveries to prominent scientists for study. Mudge had previously had a close partnership with paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. However, as described by S.W. Williston in 1898, Mudge was soon contacted by Othniel Charles Marsh, Cope's rival in the so-called Bone Wars, a rush to collect and identify fossils in the American West. Marsh wrote to Mudge in 1872 and offered to identify any important fossils free of charge, and to give Mudge sole credit for their discovery. Marsh had been a friend of Mudge when they were younger, so when Mudge learned of Marsh's request, he changed the address on the shipping crate containing the "Ichthyornis" specimen (which had already been addressed to Cope and was ready to be sent), and shipped it to Marsh instead. Marsh had narrowly won the prestige of studying and naming the important fossil at the expense of his rival.