Page 196 - The Transitional Form Dilemma

THE TRANSITIONAL-FORM DILEMMA

of that year, National Geographic magazine stated that the idea that birds
had evolved from dinosaurs finally rested on sound scientific founda-
tions. The article devoted considerable space to the fossil found in
China, maintaining that it possessed both avian and reptilian character-
istics. The writer, Christopher P. Sloan, was so convinced by the inter-
pretation of the fossil that he wrote, “We can now say that birds are
theropods just as confidently as we say that humans are mammals.” 193
This species, said to have lived 125 million years ago, was given a scien-
tific name: Archaeoraptor lioaningensis.

However, this fossil was actually a forgery, consisting of five dif-
ferent fossils expertly put together. One group of researchers, including
three paleontologists, confirmed the forgery with the help of computer
tomography a year later. The dino-bird was in fact the work of a
Chinese evolutionist. Chinese amateurs had assembled their dino-bird
together from 88 bones and teeth, using adhesive and plaster. The front
part of the Archaeoraptor consisted of a bird fossil, and its tail and
hindquarters contained bones from four different species.
The interesting thing about this was the way National Geographic

unhesitatingly published such a simple forgery, and suggested, based

Sinosauropteryx was first
presented as a feathered di-
nosaur, until it was soon
realized that it had no
structures resembling bird
feathers.

194