The problem of faked fossils in China - How Fake Fossils Pervert Paleontology [Excerpt] Dr. Mark Norell later described as an ‘unfortunate chapter’ in modern paleontology would foreshadow a growing and serious problem of fraudulent fossils being produced on an industrial scale in China. ‘To formally name a dinosaur, or any other species, a description must be prepared and published’, wrote Norell in his book Unearthing the Dragon. “Peer review, and pre-peer review, had rejected the paper’s conclusions and evidence and it never appeared in a scientific journal.” So why did National Geographic choose to go ahead and publish a description of the species when it had been turned down by academic journals? - The problem of faked fossils in China is serious and growing. It is exacerbated by the fact that most of the fossils are pulled from the ground by desperately poor farmers and then sold on to dealers and museums rather than being found by paleontologists on fossil digs, which is how specimens are discovered in most other parts of the world. Liaoning, an impoverished and heavily industrialized province of northeastern China, has been a center for paleontological activity since the early 1990s, when many early bird fossils were found there. tinyurl/oc5gvew [Open in new window]
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 03:54:12 +0000
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