Did Tyrannosaurus have feathers? This is the title of an article published in National Geographic magazine in November 1999. The article reported a peculiar "fossil". It appears to be a half-bird, half-reptile exotic animal with bird wings, dinosaur tails and hind legs, called archaeoraptor liaoningensis.
(Image from the Internet)
National Geographic editor-in-chief Bill Allen was overjoyed to learn of the fossil's existence and published a long article introducing the public to the new knowledge that dinosaurs were the ancestors of birds.
Not long after, Xu Xing, a ph.D. from the China Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, sent a message and poured a basin of cold water on National Geographic: the Liaoning ancient robber bird was made of two fossils, its upper body was a swallow bird (Yanornis.sp) and the lower body was a small robber dragon (Microraptor.sp). Both animals were native to the Early Cretaceous, The Rehe biota of Liaoning, China, where fossil traffickers glued bits and pieces of fossils together to make a fake specimen. Sadly, if not reduced to a tool for fraudsters to make profits, the fossils of small robbers and swallow birds have considerable scientific value.
In fact, people with a little experience with fossils will find that the "two" hind legs of ancient birds are basically one leg - the same stone containing fossils, and after splitting from them, you can get two stone slabs printed with fossils, called "positive mold" and "negative mold". The hind legs of the ancient robber bird are made of the positive and negative molds of the same small robber dragon legs. In addition, the front half of the ancient bird is lying on its back facing the sky, but the tail is "lying on its stomach" and the back is facing the sky. This fossil is not only a Sibei product, but the technology of counterfeiting is not yet sophisticated.
Ellen Kop did not succeed, but he was saddled with the name of deceiving the public. Here's his own reason. "Ancient robber birds" have not been studied in detail by scholars, and professional academic journals have not published articles on "ancient robber birds" for discussion in the paleontological community. Rushing to make it public at this time is against the norms of the academic community.
Among those who discovered the "ancient birds" were Stephen A. Czerkas, curator of the Blandin Dinosaur Museum, and Timothy Rowe, a Ph.D. at the University of Texas. They did a CT scan of the "ancient robber bird" and found that the fossil was made of different stones. The two men knew that the fossils were fakes and ran to National Geographic to "offer treasures", which in itself was deceptive.
Alan is deceived by Sykes, who gets the ancient bird from a fossil smuggler, so he is also a victim of being deceived by a fossil dealer. The ancient bird is not the first specimen to be counterfeited, nor will it be the last. The Rehe biota in Liaoning Province produces fossils of high quality and quantity, and the illegal trade in fossils has become a problem that threatens local fossil resources. Fossil dealers move faster than paleontologists, just as grave robbers move faster than archaeologists, which is not a good phenomenon. Precious fossils are smuggled out of the country, and "complete" fake fossils like "ancient pirate birds" bring difficulties to paleontological research.
The previous three stories are different, but the basic nature is similar. Use false evidence to prove views with personal tendencies, and these views turn out to be untenable. This is not the case with the "ancient birds of prey". The theory that dinosaurs are the ancestors of birds is widely recognized, and China's fossil reserves are abundant and can provide ample evidence. However, the cause of the ancient bird robbery incident is not so much too few fossils as too many fossils (however, the management level is relatively backward). Even with the best theories and the best evidence, they may be led by scammers and take a crooked road, and the "ancient robber birds" remind us that people are easy to be deceived.
(Excerpt from Antelope and Bee: An Evolutionary Wonder of Beings)