"National Geographic" was forced to withdraw in shame from supporting a researcher who allegedly found the missing link between dinosaurs and birds
3.2.2000
This creature, which "National Geographic" called an "archaeoraptor", was first discovered in a hotel room in the city of Tucson, Arizona. While wandering through a fossil fair, Steven Charkas, an avid dinosaur enthusiast and director of a small private museum, heard a rumor that a Chinese merchant possessed some unusual bones. Charkas invited the merchant to his hotel room, and when the merchant removed the wrapper, Charkas experienced a paleontological revelation: the fossilized bones of an extraordinary prehistoric animal, whose limbs resemble those of winged animals and whose tail is typical of a dromaeosaur, and is covered with a kind of down feathers He looks like a dinosaur that can fly.
"It was really amazing," recalls Charkas. "I immediately understood that his place is not in fairs but in museums." He contacted a financier, who paid the merchant 80 thousand dollars, and made his way back home, thrilled by the discovery and convinced that he held evidence for a turning point in the history of evolution.
This happened in February 99. Since then, the affair of the rise and fall of the new chicken-dinosaur of Cherkas has become one of the strangest chapters in the history of fossil research and a scandal from which science has not yet calmed down. After months of careful examination, the magazine "National Geographic" published the sensational discovery in extreme prominence. "National Geographic" even declared the bird-dinosaur of Cherkas as a new species - "archaeoraptor liaoningensis" - and described it as a "missing link" and conclusive proof that winged are the last descendants of the dinosaurs. But at the end of a few weeks it became clear that the Archaraptor was nothing more than a scam: it turned out that National Geographic's sensational discovery, the missing link between a dinosaur and a bird, was assembled by fossil-loving Chinese farmers from the remains of at least two animals. The hoax was exposed after a Chinese researcher visited Liaoning, the place where the bones of the archaraptor were supposedly found, and discovered that the tail of a dinosaur known as a dromaeosaur had been stolen from there.
"National Geographic" had to withdraw in disgrace, the most humiliating step the magazine had ever known. If that's not enough, the editors of the journal were even accused of illegally possessing a fossil smuggled out of China.
How did it happen to them? After "National Geographic" learned of the discovery, Christopher Sloan, an editor at the magazine, was sent to Charkas, examined the bones, returned to the system and reported to his editors that there was a basis for Charkas's claim and that the magazine should investigate the matter. To back themselves up, the editors decided to collaborate with one of the two most important scientific journals in the US: "Nature" and "Science"
Sloan's conclusions were sent to Henry Gee, editor of Nature. Gee was not impressed. It's an amateur text, he stated, and it doesn't have enough details. "Later, something else occurred to me," says Ji. "I thought about the possibility that the bones were smuggled out of China illegally." G sent Sloan's text back to National Geographic. ""Science also rejected the proposal for cooperation after an expert examination. But all these warnings did not cool the enthusiasm of the editors of "National Geographic", and in October they called a press conference and announced the discovery. The publication of the article rekindled an old debate. The accepted claim of most dinosaur and bird researchers is that the winged animals evolved at the same time as the dinosaurs, but separately from them, and that both are descendants of a reptile that roamed the surface of the globe about 250 million years ago. It was a lizard-like creature that climbed trees and was covered in feathers.
Another opinion, held by few researchers, is that the winged are direct descendants of the dinosaurs. The Chinese fossils were the first supporting evidence for this version. What's more: their discovery indicated that the feathers of the archaraptor were primarily used for display and thermal insulation, and only later for flight.
The discovery of the fraud did not cause the researchers who hold this belief to withdraw from their position. They admit that the Archaraptor is a fake, but insist that the evidence for a chicken-dinosaur is overwhelming. Henry G himself was one of them. "There is no doubt that the case has unfortunate consequences," he says, "it provides ammunition for a small and vocal group that now claims connections and conspiracies. On one thing I agree with my opponents: 'National Geographic' suffered a fatal injury."
Storrs Olson, an ornithologist at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, led the fight against the archaraptor. "In its articles, 'National Geographic' praised a dubious species," he says indignantly. "I told them that they should look into the matter carefully. They ignored all the contradictory evidence. It's a catch: there is no such thing as a feathered dinosaur. To claim that such a thing exists is like saying that Elvis Presley is on the dark side of the moon."
Julian Burger, Guardian
("Haaretz" 13/02/00)
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