Archaeoraptor: A Prehistoric Puzzle
Archaeoraptor: A Prehistoric Puzzle
How hard can it be to fool someone? There are fables and scrolls from ages past that tell of the clever villain scheming away, plotting to trick the dashing hero. Although it has negative connotations, foolery is certainly an art. Humanity is skeptical, and to be a true trickster you must be smart, and quick thinking as to address any unexpected accusations thrown your way. Some people may say that the Archaeoraptor was a talentless sham, but I believe that it was executed seamlessly. It’s not just a fraud- it’s a story, a tale about an illegal sale made on a black market, an account of a fraud that would deceive scientists, a narrative where a nation was fooled. We all wanted to believe it, too. Maybe that …show more content…
was the problem. It would’ve been amazing: a lost link that was sought for many years, finally unearthed. Unfortunately, that “link” was nothing but a lie. And to think, it all started in the shale pits of the Liaoning Province. In the dreary July of 1997, an unknown Chinese farmer was shuffling around in the shale pits to try and make some extra money. This was entirely illegal, but farmers were poor and would take the risk for some easy cash. The farmer discovered bits and pieces of some kind of ancient bird, but because you can earn much more money by selling whole fossils, he took some special glue and fit the pieces together like a prehistoric puzzle. Now that the fossil appeared to be complete, he likely sold it to a local bank for around eighty dollars, but even that small fee could feed his family for weeks. (the composite fossil)
The fossil began a trip through the infamous Chinese prehistoric black market.
The false fossil left China in June 1998 and eventually turned up in a rocks and fossil shop in Tucson, AZ, where it was discovered and eventually purchased by Stephen Czerkas. Czerkas was an amaeteur fossil collector who probably didn’t know any better than to purchase pretend petrified remains. He was extremely excited and proceeded to contact an expert and call for a study of the fossil. A team from National Geographic agreed to keep details about this study secret until the science journal article came out. The press was playing this up, calling this dinosaur “the lost link between dinosaurs and modern day birds”. It was supposed to be huge; people have been looking for something like this for ages. The team affectionately began referring to the fossil as Archaeoraptor. The world of paleontology was going mad with excitement. Unfortunately, these dreams of new discovery would not last …show more content…
long.
The team began their study, and there were instant problems.
Paleontologist Phil Currie noticed that the tail didn’t even connect with the rest of the supposed dinosaur. The rock layers were different and the legs were off. The sneaking suspicion that this dream might indeed be too good to be true slithered into the minds of the crew. Unfortunately, National Geographic had already scheduled Archaeoraptor as the cover for the National Geographic magazine. The amount of attention the fossil had gotten would make it more than slightly embarrassing for the company to denounce it as a fake. So they called in an expert, paleontologist Xu Xing, to double check. He performed some tests and did indeed discover that Archaeoraptor was a composite fossil. The tail came from a species that was later named Microraptor, and the rest was from an unknown ancient bird. National Geographic had to hold a press conference in early 2000 to confess to the world that the famed fossil was a fraud. Everyone was upset by this and wondered why no one had realized the authenticity. It raised some important questions about the illegal fossil
trade.
Even though this dinosaur was a fake, there were still some important bits in the puzzle that led to some major discoveries. Because of this we have discovered an intriguing dinosaur that has four functioning wings, and an ancient bird that is helping us link together this mystery. It took the right timing and the right people for a hoax to make it that far. Just the right conditions are needed for deception to seep its way into the basis of someone’s beliefs.
How hard can it be to fool someone? There are fables and scrolls from ages past that tell of the clever villain scheming away, plotting to trick the dashing hero. Although it has negative connotations, foolery is certainly an art. Humanity is skeptical, and to be a true trickster you must be smart, and quick thinking as to address any unexpected accusations thrown your way. Some people may say that the Archaeoraptor was a talentless sham, but I believe that it was executed seamlessly. It’s not just a fraud- it’s a story, a tale about an illegal sale made on a black market, an account of a fraud that would deceive scientists, a narrative where a nation was fooled. We all wanted to believe it, too. Maybe that …show more content…
was the problem. It would’ve been amazing: a lost link that was sought for many years, finally unearthed. Unfortunately, that “link” was nothing but a lie. And to think, it all started in the shale pits of the Liaoning Province. In the dreary July of 1997, an unknown Chinese farmer was shuffling around in the shale pits to try and make some extra money. This was entirely illegal, but farmers were poor and would take the risk for some easy cash. The farmer discovered bits and pieces of some kind of ancient bird, but because you can earn much more money by selling whole fossils, he took some special glue and fit the pieces together like a prehistoric puzzle. Now that the fossil appeared to be complete, he likely sold it to a local bank for around eighty dollars, but even that small fee could feed his family for weeks. (the composite fossil)
The fossil began a trip through the infamous Chinese prehistoric black market.
The false fossil left China in June 1998 and eventually turned up in a rocks and fossil shop in Tucson, AZ, where it was discovered and eventually purchased by Stephen Czerkas. Czerkas was an amaeteur fossil collector who probably didn’t know any better than to purchase pretend petrified remains. He was extremely excited and proceeded to contact an expert and call for a study of the fossil. A team from National Geographic agreed to keep details about this study secret until the science journal article came out. The press was playing this up, calling this dinosaur “the lost link between dinosaurs and modern day birds”. It was supposed to be huge; people have been looking for something like this for ages. The team affectionately began referring to the fossil as Archaeoraptor. The world of paleontology was going mad with excitement. Unfortunately, these dreams of new discovery would not last …show more content…
long.
The team began their study, and there were instant problems.
Paleontologist Phil Currie noticed that the tail didn’t even connect with the rest of the supposed dinosaur. The rock layers were different and the legs were off. The sneaking suspicion that this dream might indeed be too good to be true slithered into the minds of the crew. Unfortunately, National Geographic had already scheduled Archaeoraptor as the cover for the National Geographic magazine. The amount of attention the fossil had gotten would make it more than slightly embarrassing for the company to denounce it as a fake. So they called in an expert, paleontologist Xu Xing, to double check. He performed some tests and did indeed discover that Archaeoraptor was a composite fossil. The tail came from a species that was later named Microraptor, and the rest was from an unknown ancient bird. National Geographic had to hold a press conference in early 2000 to confess to the world that the famed fossil was a fraud. Everyone was upset by this and wondered why no one had realized the authenticity. It raised some important questions about the illegal fossil
trade.
Even though this dinosaur was a fake, there were still some important bits in the puzzle that led to some major discoveries. Because of this we have discovered an intriguing dinosaur that has four functioning wings, and an ancient bird that is helping us link together this mystery. It took the right timing and the right people for a hoax to make it that far. Just the right conditions are needed for deception to seep its way into the basis of someone’s beliefs.