Page 196 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

194 The Origin of Birds and Flight

It has been realized that the animal described in scientific articles and
declared in National Geographic magazine in November 1999 to be a
missing link between dinosaurs and birds, is a forgery. It has emerged
that the turkey-sized dino-bird skeleton known as Archaeoraptor liaon-
ongensis was actually an assembly of bones from other animals. It was
suggested that the dino-bird, assumed to shed light on an important
gap in the theory of evolution, was 125 million years old and found in
the Chinese province of Liaoning. Its feathered body looks like a bird,
although its long, bony tail was reminiscent of carnivorous dinosaurs.
An examination published in today’s edition of the British scientific
weekly magazine Nature has revealed that the dino-bird is a fabrica-
tion. A group of researchers including three paleontologists proved the
fabrication by means of computer tomography. The dino-bird was
actually the work of Chinese smugglers . . . [who] smugglers construct-
ed the dino-bird out of 88 bones using adhesives and plaster. The front
of the Archaeoraptor belonged to a single bird, while the body and tail
contained bones from four different species. Scanning of the dino-bird
by computer indicated that the bird skeleton belonged to previously
unknown species, and the dino part to new, small dinosaur species. 156
National Geographic, on the other hand, published only a very brief
reference to this fabrication. This statement, by the vertebrate paleontol-
ogist Xu Xing of the Beijing Chinese Academy of Sciences, appeared in
the “Forum” section, toward the back of the magazine. Xu Xing’s letter
contained the following statements:
After observing a new feathered dromaeosaur specimen in a private
collection and comparing it with the fossil known as Archaeoraptor, I
have concluded that Archaeoraptor is a composite. The tail portions of
the two fossils are identical, but other elements of the new specimen
are very different from Archaeoraptor, in fact more closely resembling
Sinornithosaurus. Though I do not want to believe it, Archaeoraptor
appears to be composed of a dromaeosaur tail and a bird body. 157