"Archaeoraptor" is the informal generic name for a fossil chimera from China in an article published in National Geographic magazine in 1999. The magazine claimed that the fossil was a "missing link" between birds and terrestrial theropod dinosaurs. Even before this publication, there had been severe doubts about the fossil's authenticity. A further scientific study showed it to be a forgery constructed from rearranged pieces of real fossils from different species. Zhou et al. found that the head and upper body belong to a specimen of the primitive fossil bird Yanornis.[1] A 2002 study found that the tail belongs to a small winged dromaeosaur, Microraptor, named in 2000.[2] The legs and feet belong to an as-yet-unknown-animal.[3][4]
The scandal brought attention to illegal fossil deals conducted in China. Although "Archaeoraptor" was a forgery, many true examples of feathered dinosaurs have been found and demonstrate the evolutionary connection between birds and other theropods.[5]
- ^ Zhou, Zhonghe, Clarke, Julia A., Zhang, Fucheng. "Archaeoraptor's better half." Nature Vol. 420. 21 November 2002. pp. 285.
- ^ Mayell, Hillary (2002-11-20). "Dino Hoax Was Mainly Made of Ancient Bird, Study Says". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
- ^ Holden, Constance. "Florida Meeting Shows Perils, Promise of Dealing for Dinos" Science 14 April 2000. Vol.288 no.5464 pp.238-239. doi:10.1126/science.288.5464.238a
- ^ Timothy Rowe, Richard A. Ketcham, Cambria Denison, Matthew Colbert, Xing Xu, Philip J. Currie, 2001, "Forensic palaeontology: The Archaeoraptor Forgery", Nature 410, 539 - 540 (29 Mar 2001), doi:10.1038/35069145
- ^ Padian, Kevin. (2004). "Basal Avialae". In Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (eds.). The Dinosauria (Second ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 210–231. ISBN 978-0-520-24209-8.