Page 194 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

192 The Origin of Birds and Flight

This forgery was said to date as far back as the Cretaceous Period,
142 to 65.5 million years ago. This carnivore also had sharp claws and
teeth. Its shoulder girdle and breastbones were identical to those of
present-day birds, showing that it was capable of flight.
This totally feather-covered creature walked on two legs, its bones
were hollow, and it had feathers and a long tail. Yet that tail had been
taken from another fossil. In 1999, it finally emerged that this dino-bird
fossil was a forgery, produced by adding a bird’s skeleton to a reptile
backbone: The long tail of a dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur fossil had
been added to the fossil of a bird about the size of a turkey. The fact is,
however, that dinosaur and avian characteristics had been deliberately