Dino Hoax Was Mainly Made of Ancient Bird, Study Says

Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News

November 20, 2002

The principal part of a famously fabricated dinosaur fossil is an ancient fish-eating bird, scientists report.

The Archaeoraptor fossil was introduced in 1999 and hailed as the missing evolutionary link between carnivorous dinosaurs and modern birds. It was fairly quickly exposed as bogus, a composite containing the head and body of a primitive bird and the tail and hind limbs of a dromaeosaur dinosaur, glued together by a Chinese farmer. [See sidebar]

Initial CT scans suggested that the fossil might have been made up of anywhere from two to five specimens of two or more species. Chinese and American scientists now report that the fabricated fossil is made up of two species.

The tail and hind limbs were identified in 2000 as belonging to a Microraptor zhaoianus, a small, bipedal, meat-eating dinosaur with some bird-like features.

Scientists in the November 21 issue of the journal Nature report that the avian parts of the false dinosaur-bird fossil are from one specimen, a fish-eating bird known as Yanornis martini.

Yanornis martini was first identified by Zhou Zhonghe and Zhang Fucheng, paleontologists at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, in 2001. The bird lived in the Early Cretaceous, around 120 to 110 million years ago. Yanornis had advanced features approaching those of modern birds, and strong flying abilities.

Birds and Dinosaurs

Prior to their appearance in the false Archaeoraptor fossil, both Microraptor andYanornis were unknown species.

"Yanornis is an important new species, and is going to receive more attention in the future," said Julia Clarke, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and one of the study's co-authors.

"Every new species coming out of China brings us closer to understanding the anatomical changes that occurred on the evolutionary path between raptor-dinosaurs and living birds," she said. "And that was a really long road."

The fossils come from the Liaoning Province of China, where thousands of flying and non-flying dinosaur fossils have been uncovered. The site has provided compelling evidence confirming the bird-dinosaur link.

"The idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs is supported by a tremendous amount of evidence," said Kevin Padian, curator of the University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology, and a professor of integrative biology.

In addition to primitive feathers, theropod dinosaurs—the dinosaurs most closely linked to birds—share more than 100 anatomical features with modern birds and have similar bone growth rate patterns.

And they share these traits most closely with dromaeosaurs and troodontids, said Padian.

Microraptor, for instance, is the smallest dromaeosaur yet found at about 16 inches (41 centimeters) long, and although it did not fly, it had some bird-like features, including teeth resembling those of early birds, a similar hip structure, and feather-like structures.

Dinosaur Treasure Trove

The full identification of the two species that comprised the fossil should be the final chapter of the Archaeoraptor debacle.

"The really unfortunate aspect of the Archaeoraptor forgery was that it was used to suggest that other feathered dinosaur fossils were also faked, and added a layer of confusion to public understanding that shouldn't be there," said Clarke.

"There's an abundant amount of evidence that the lineage leading to birds is nested in Dinosauria," she said. "There are many feathered flying and non-flying dinosaur fossils from these two regions that are not forgeries."

Liaoning Province in northern China has proved to be a treasure trove of dinosaur fossils. Hundreds of specimens have been found of insects, plants, fish, frogs, turtles, lizards, and early mammals in addition to birds and feathered dinosaurs. The region was ideally suited for preserving fossils; volcanic eruptions spewed ash into shallow rivers and streams, quickly burying animals that died or fell in the water under a layer of sediment.

Padian hopes the Archaeoraptor episode will serve as a wake-up call.

"The lesson in this should be the importance of conserving fossils and protecting them," said Padian. "Chinese villagers who found the specimen don't make a lot of money, and they don't know what these animals look like. There was no hoax. These are poor people trying to make a little extra money by selling fossils on the black market."

It's illegal to export fossils out of China, but a thriving black market exists, driven by poverty, powered by bribery, and feeding a seemingly inexhaustible desire for fossils among hobbyists.

Huge quantities of fossils are illegally excavated and smuggled out each year. And no wonder; the Archaeoraptor fossil sold in the United States for $80,000.

This is an internationally important region," said Padian. "The workers there are very poor; if they were better rewarded for working with scientists there would be no need to enhance the fossils, or for a black market at all. The international community needs to take steps to protect these fossils."