The fake fossil that was discovered as two fossils each is a scientific discovery in itself

A fossil found in China was considered the link between the ancient dinosaurs and today's birds, until it turned out to be a huge hoax. In the end the goat turned out sweet and the fake led to the discovery of the smallest dinosaur in history

Creatures that lived about 130 million years ago in what is now Liaoning Province in China had very bad luck. A volcano that suddenly erupted buried countless animals and plants under tons of mud and rocks. The bad luck of the ancient beings is also the good luck of the people of Liaoning County. The soil on which they live is rich in exceptionally preserved fossils. Many of the residents of the area dig in the ground, and the fossils they discover they sell to museums and private collectors for a lot of money.

In 1997, the editors of the prestigious magazine National Geographic heard news about an unusual fossil that was discovered in the Liaoning area. This is a creature whose upper body looks like that of a bird, but it has a tail like a dinosaur.

The excitement in the magazine system was great. Most scientists believe that the birds are the descendants of the dinosaurs - there are dozens, if not hundreds, of anatomical clues to the connection between them. In 1997, then, there was still no tangible evidence that would confirm this theory beyond any doubt. What is needed to finally sew up this bag is a fossil that exhibits intermediate features, a creature that is the missing link between the dinosaurs and the birds. The fossil from Liaoning may well have been that missing link...and that is undoubtedly a tremendous scoop.

But there were two problems - one small, and the other big. The small problem was that the fossil belonged to a small museum, not the magazine itself. The museum agreed to loan the fossil to National Geographic for the purpose of investigating and writing about it, but a large part of the process of examining the fossil by scientific parties was done at the initiative of the museum and without the intervention of the magazine. The second problem was that the fossil was illegally smuggled out of China, and this was a really big problem... Researching illegal fossils is considered a serious ethical offense, and most researchers are not willing to touch such fossils even with a stick.

Since it is nevertheless a fossil that may be, at least in principle, one of the most important fossils in the history of biology, several researchers were found who agreed to examine it. At least one of them noticed suspicious findings in the ancient creature. The most suspicious finding was that the dinosaur tail seemed to connect to the bird's body too suddenly, unnaturally. He expressed his suspicions that the fossil might be a fake - but this report, it seems, did not reach the ears of the National Geographic editors. They were eager to share the news of the discovery and even though they knew that the fossil had not been thoroughly examined by any qualified scientific body, they decided not to stop. In the November issue of 1999, a large article was published in the magazine about the discovery and the enormous importance of the fossil for the evolutionary theory of birds. The magazine even gave it a temporary scientific name, 'archaeraptor' - or loosely translated 'ancient predator'.

Immediately after publication, the trouble began. National Geographic has been criticized by many scientists for publishing in print claims that are in fact nothing more than speculation. The decision of the magazine to give the product a name on its own accord and without any prior consultation with anyone from the scientific community was also sharply criticized, although it should be noted that the article explicitly stated that it was only a temporary name, pending a decision by an authoritative scientific body. But the real blessing, however, hasn't even begun.

A Chinese researcher named Xue Sing, who was exposed to the existence of the fossil at a relatively early stage of the investigation, noticed as early as 1999 that the dinosaur tail of the archeraptor was suspiciously similar to the tail of another fossil discovered in the Liaoling area - a dinosaur called a microraptor, or loosely translated 'Dan Meno of the dinosaurs'. Xue Sing returned to Liaoling. He talked to fossil dealers, did some digging of his own and finally located a find that is perhaps the most amazing and cheap coincidence in the history of dinosaur fossil research.

When a fossil is carved out of the ground, in many cases the rock in which it lies is cut in the middle, exactly in the middle of the thickness of the fossil - like cutting a bun. The result is two parts of the fossil that are almost identical: two parts that are mirror images of each other. From the countless fossils excavated and excavated from the rich soil of Liaoling, Xue Sing was able to find exactly the fossil that was the mirror image of the Archaraptor. The grooves in the rock, the spots of color, the bones of the fossil - all pointed to an unquestionable identity. A needle in a haystack, one in a million, winning the lottery - choose your favorite cliché.

The image of the mirror Xue Sing held in his hand showed the tail of the archraptor and how it was attached to the body...but the body was completely different. In other words, someone took the tail of a microraptor and attached a bird fossil to it. The forgery was a work of thought, and was almost certainly done by a person who had a real understanding of bird and dinosaur anatomy: there were no excess, missing or duplicated bones. Everything was as it should have been, except for the unfortunate fact that it shouldn't have been there in the first place. The motive was undoubtedly financial: a fragmented and fragmented fossil is worth several hundred dollars, while a complete fossil is worth thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of dollars.

Ksu Singh was quick to inform the shocked editors of National Geographic. Such a blunder has never happened in all the magazine's hundred or so years. The editors were forced to publish an apology and an in-depth investigation into the reasons that led to the unfortunate mishap. not nice.

But then another coincidence happened, no less amazing than the previous one. When the researchers began to examine the forgery in depth, they discovered to their astonishment that each part of the forgery was a sensational scientific discovery in itself. Microraptor, the dinosaur to which the fake fossil's tail belonged, turned out to be the smallest dinosaur ever discovered. More importantly, it turns out that it had feathers and lived on trees, meaning it is the first dinosaur, as far as we know, that was able to climb a tree. The distance between climbing trees and hovering from branch to branch is very short, from an evolutionary point of view, so it could definitely be that the microraptor is the link between the dinosaurs and the birds.

Unless…the top of the fake fossil is that vertebra. Yes, it turns out that the ancient bird that was the archeraptor's upper body is also a very strange bird. She has feathers and a beak - and claws and teeth... just like dinosaurs. The fake fossil that so embarrassed the prestigious magazine turned out to be of great importance to the scientists...the irony of fate.

Ran Levi is a science writer and hosts 'Making History!', a podcast about science, technology and history: www.ranlevi.co.il

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