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Chinese fossils authenticity issues



From: Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com


A recent article in Science magazine not yet mentioned.
Discusses possibility that 160-million-year-old Aurornis fossil comes
from Yixian and so is younger (125 million years old), since fossil
was obtained from a dealer without rigorous provenance info..

Michael Balter (2013)
Authenticity of China's Fabulous Fossils Gets New Scrutiny.
Science 340 (6137): 1153-1154
DOI: 10.1126/science.340.6137.1153
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6137/1153.summary

Last week, a feathered fossil from northeastern China made headlines
when paleontologists unveiled it as the earliest known bird. Aurornis
was the latest in a decadelong string of splendidly preserved bird and
dinosaur specimens from Liaoning province, where a burgeoning industry
in fossil hunting and preparation has given scientists around the
world access to many more specimens (Aurornis among them) than they
could dig up themselves. But such secondhand fossils have a downside:
Sloppy records or even outright forgeries can make it hard for
researchers studying a specimen to tell where it came from, how old it
is, or sometimes even whether it is genuine. Now paleontologists both
inside and outside China are calling for extra care in testing fossils
for authenticity and keeping track of their provenance.