Notes on the Appraisal of Real and Fake Fossils

2009-01-01

(Fossil Website/By Chen Xiaozheng) Many people have misunderstanding on the fossils, thinking that the rocks from a certain organism (or structure) are the fossils from the organism (or structure).

However, fossils are not what they look like. Evidence has to be discovered. In most cases, it is sufficient to tell the type of the fossils by the appearance or features. In the appraising of the real and fake fossils, visual inspection alone is not be dependable. The most important evidence lies in microstructure.

Let’s take dinosaur eggs as an example. The micro-evidence here is not about whether the egg is shelled or separated into layers. Consideration should be given to the makeup and microstructure of the shell to see if there is special structure of the organism, which fossilization has occurred to the structure and what form (mineral) is preserved. As long as these items are “normal”, we can then say that there is a great possibility that it is a fossil. If the fossil is very special and show marked difference from normal fossils, do not doubt immediately the textbook and the earlier researches because they have mostly been proved with different means while yours are not yet. Suspicion should be placed first on your specimen. Of course, exceptions can be found. However, if you want to prove the exception, you need to make efforts that are much greater. That’s why we will first of all have doubts on exception instead of the textbooks.

Nowadays, a part from a lot of non-fossil structure coming from nature itself, some fake ones are made deliberately in accordance with the structure of the fossils. As a result, only the obvious non-fossil structure can be tell at a glance. Without careful observation, even the most authoritative specialists can not come to accurate conclusions immediately.

In order to discuss professional questions, do not take the press on the media for granted. It’s believed that there are lots of mistakes in the media report. Some of the textbooks and professional journals are much more trustworthy, because it has a lot to do with publication systems of the media. Media are very often no judge of Paleontology. When there is a fake scholar, the quality of the contribution can be imagined. When it comes to professional textbooks and journals, on top of the more than a few professional editors, the authors are specialists themselves. The inspection by the specialists and editors can very often lead to quality publication.