Re: Biggest Bloopers in Vert Paleo?

[art@acc.com (Art Berggreen)]

>
>I'm sure to the experts out there, these stories are well known,
>but as an amateur, I'd like to know:
>What (if any) have been some of the "Great Blunders in Vertebrate
>Paleontology"? You know, something like: someone finds the tibea
>from a wooly mammoth, and pronounces it to be the wing bone of
>a flying Allosaurid carivore, or something like that? And of
>these kinds of stories, how many were actually believed until
>disproven?
>Just curious; I figure there's a "human error" artifact in 
>any science.
>
>Sean

One that comes to mind, is a mistake by Cope.  He apparently
mounted a marine reptile (plesiosaur?) with the head at the
wrong end of the vertebral column.  This was publically pointed
out by Marsh.  Some say that their famous rivalry really took
off after that event.

Art