Page 29 - A Definitive Reply to Evolutionist Propagand‪a

HARUN YAHYA

wo documentaries called Dinosaur Dealers have
been broadcast on National Geographic TV. These
dealt with the trade in fossils and fossil smuggling,
and described the adventures of a paleontologist
T who followed in the tracks of a number of stolen
fossils, or fossils smuggled out of Australia. The trail was followed
detective-style, and the program showed the negotiations carried
out in order to trap the smugglers. In this way, the impression was-
given that National Geographic is an idealistic body, chasing hot on
the heels of smugglers and striving with all its might to destroy this
illegal trade. However, the TV channel failed to mention that just a
few years ago it too was involved in smuggling an Archaeoraptor fos-
sil (and the fraud that accompanied it). In fact, it said not a word
about it.
Let us recall the details of that smuggling operation.
Archaeoraptor liaoningensis was a forged dino-bird fossil. The re-
mains of the creature, alleged to be an evolutionary link between di-
nosaurs and birds, had apparently been unearthed in the Liaoning
area of China and were published in the November 1999 edition of
National Geographic magazine.
Stephen Czerkas, an American museum administrator, had
bought the fossil from the Chinese for $80,000, and then showed it
to two scientists he had made contact with. Once the expected con-
firmation had been received, he wrote a report about the fossil. Yet
Czerkas was no scientific researcher, nor did he hold a doctorate of
any sort. He submitted his report to two famous scientific journals,
Nature and Science, but they both declined to publish it unless it was
first vetted by an independent commission of paleontologists.
Czerkas was determined to have this fantastical discovery pub-
lished, and he next knocked at the door of National Geographic,
known for its support of the theory of evolution.
Under Chinese law it was definitely forbidden to remove fossils
unearthed within its borders from the country, and fossil-smuggling

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