Some famous fossils, such as Archaeoraptor liaoningensis, were forgeries.
Joel Kontinen
The latest issue of Science has an interesting article that questions the credibility of some fossils found in China. It brings to mind what J. Shreeve wrote in Discoverer magazine in 1990: ”Everybody knows fossils are fickle; bones will sing any song you want to hear.”
The problem with Chinese dinosaur and bird fossils is that no one really knows whether they are authentic, as many have been collected and sold by amateurs.
According to Science,
“such secondhand fossils have a downside: Sloppy records or even outright forgeries can make it hard for researchers studying a specimen to tell where it came from, how old it is, or sometimes even whether it is genuine.”
Darwinian just so stories and even an entire worldview are often based on very flimsy evidence.
Source:
Balter, Michael. 2013. Authenticity of China's Fabulous Fossils Gets New Scrutiny. Science 340 (6137), 1153–1154 (7 June 2013).
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