Forged fossil is a fish-eating fowl. (Paleontology).A fossil creature once thought to be a missing link between dinosaurs and birds actually derives mostly from an ancient fish-eating bird, researchers have found. Dubbed Archaeoraptor, the purported find was unveiled by the National Geographic Society National Geographic Society U.S. scientific society founded in 1888 in Washington, D.C., by a small group of eminent explorers and scientists “for the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge. in October 1999. At that time, some paleontologists proposed that the fossil's odd mix of features--the tail of a meat-eating dinosaur with the feathers and wing structure of a bird--would have placed the species between dinosaurs and birds on life's family tree (SN: 11/20/99, p. 328). Other scientists were wary. Further studies determined the odd specimen was a forgery, smuggled smug·gle v. smug·gled, smug·gling, smug·gles v.tr. 1. To import or export without paying lawful customs charges or duties. 2. To bring in or take out illicitly or by stealth. from China and sold at a gem and mineral show in Tucson for $80,000. The chimera was cobbled cob·ble 1 n. 1. A cobblestone. 2. Geology A rock fragment between 64 and 256 millimeters in diameter, especially one that has been naturally rounded. 3. cobbles See cob coal. tr. together from the remains of up to six different species (SN: 1/15/00, p. 38), including the tail of a small theropod theropod Any species of bipedal, carnivorous saurischian in the suborder Theropoda. The chicken-sized Compsognathus,the smallest known adult dinosaur, probably weighed 2–4 lb (1–2 kg); the tyrannosaurs weighed tons. dubbed Microraptor (SN: 4/21/01, p. 253). The latest research, published in the Nov. 21 Nature, focuses on Archaeoraptor's skull, body, wings, and hind limbs. Results strongly suggest that those bones come from Yanornis martini, a bird that lived between 110 million and 120 million years ago in what is now northeastern China, say the researchers. Those body parts are shedding new light on the Yanornis species, says Julia A. Clarke, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History American Museum of Natural History, incorporated in New York City in 1869 to promote the study of natural science and related subjects. Buildings on its present site were opened in 1877. in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and a coauthor of the new study. That's because some intact features of the forgery's skeleton weren't preserved in the first Yanornis fossil to be described, she notes. The stomach contents of a third known Yanornis fossil confirm that the ancient bird ate fish, according to the new report. |
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