Welcome to the Fossil Wiki The paleontology wiki that anyone can edit. 5,550 articles and 2,450 images since January 5, 2009 Official policies Verifiability No Angry Mastodons Neutral point of view No original research Helping out Contributing How to edit a page Your first article Be Bold More featured images Armadillosuchus

"Archaeoraptor" is the generic name informally assigned in 1999 to a fossil from China in an article published in National Geographic magazine. The magazine claimed that the fossil was a "missing link" between birds and terrestrial theropod dinosaurs. Even prior to this publication there had been severe doubts about the fossil's authenticity. It led to a scandal when it was definitely proven to be a forgery through further scientific study. The forgery was constructed from rearranged pieces of real fossils from different species. Zhou et al. found that the head and upper body actually belong to a specimen of the primitive fossil bird Yanornis. A 2002 study found that the tail belongs to a small winged dromaeosaur, Microraptor, named in 2000. The legs and feet belong to an as yet unknown animal. The "Archaeoraptor" scandal has ongoing ramifications. The scandal brought attention to illegal fossil deals conducted in China. It also highlighted the need for close scientific scrutiny of purported "missing links" published in journals which are not peer-reviewed. The fossil scandal has been used by creationists to cast doubt on evolutionary theory. Although "Archaeoraptor" was a forgery, many true examples of feathered dinosaurs have been found and demonstrate the evolutionary connection between birds and other theropods. (Read more...)

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From The Fossil Wiki's newest articles:

• ... that in 2005, an Acrocanthosaurus skull (pictured) was CT scanned, proving that Acrocanthosaurus was a carcharodontosaurid?
• ... that Irritator is only known from a skull that was badly obscured by plaster which was added by the commercial fossil-collecting fossil-poachers who illegally sold it in hopes of making the fossil look more complete and valuable?
• ... that rhynchosaurs had unique teeth that were modified into broad tooth plates?
• ... that a trackway produced by an unknown crocodyliform that measured approximately 12 meters in length was uncovered in the Galve region of Spain?
• ... that Loxommatids are possibly the first tetrapodomorph group to actually spend substantial time on land.?
• ... that Zuniceratops was discovered by 8 year old Christopher James Wolfe, son of paleontologist Douglas G. Wolfe?

Paleontologist of the Month

Paul Sereno is an American paleontologist who is the discoverer of several new dinosaur species on several continents. He has conducted excavations at sites as varied as Inner Mongolia, Argentina, Morocco and Niger. He is a professor at the University of Chicago and a National Geographic "explorer-in-residence." Sereno's most widely publicized discovery is that of a nearly complete specimen of Sarcosuchus imperator (popularly known as SuperCroc) at Gadoufaoua in the Tenere desert of Niger. Other major discoveries include Eoraptor - the oldest known dinosaur fossil, Jobaria, the first good skull of Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis, Afrovenator, Suchomimus and the African pterosaur. (Read more...)

2009 In the News                                • Suggest a news item • A new species of Eobaatar, a Cretaceous mammal, is described in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. Tianyuraptor (pictured), a new genus of short-armed dromaeosaurid dinosaur, is described from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation in China. Research at Virginia Tech has shown that the oldest complex life forms – living in nutrient-rich oceans more than 540 million years ago – likely fed by osmosis. Nanostructures preserved in feather fossils more than 40 million years old show evidence that those feathers were once vivid and iridescent in color. The hair-like filaments found in pterosaurs are officially described as pycnofibers. A new report from the scientific journal Lethaia suggests that theropod dinosaurs preyed upon juveniles and newborns, as opposed to fully grown adults. A new analysis of the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex has confirmed traces of protein from blood and bone, tendons, or cartilage. Newly described remains of the stem-group mammal Suminia are announced which indicate that it was aboreal and had opposable, grasping thumbs. Random Featured Quote (Refresh) "An evolutionary perspective of our place in the history of the earth reminds us that Homo sapiens sapiens has occupied the planet for the tiniest fraction of that planet's four and a half thousand million years of existence. In many ways we are a biological accident, the product of countless propitious circumstances. As we peer back through the fossil record, through layer upon layer of long-extinct species, many of which thrived far longer than the human species is ever likely to do, we are reminded of our mortality as a species. There is no law that declares the human animal to be different, as seen in this broad biological perspective, from any other animal. There is no law that declares the human species to be immortal." —Richard E. Leakey. Co-author with American science writer Roger Amos Lewin (1946), Origins: What New Discoveries Reveal about the Emergence of our Species and its Possible Future (1977), 256. Community                                           About • FAQ • The Field Site Community To-Do List Place all uncategorized images into the Image Category. Create some wanted articles. The goal for the number of pages to be created by the end of August is 5,500 articles. There are currently 5,550 articles. Weigh in at the recent Featured article nominations. Add an item here!

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4567.17 Ma - Precambrian era - 542 Ma
3800 Ma - Archean eon - 2500 Ma				2500 Ma - Proterozoic eon - 542 Ma
3800 Ma - Archean eon - 2500 Ma				2600 Ma - Paleoproterozoic era - 1600 Ma				1600 Ma - Mesoproterozoic era - 1000 Ma			1000 Ma - Neoproterozoic era - 542 Ma
Eoarchean	Paleoarchean	Mesoarchean	Neoarchean	Siderian	Rhyacian	Orosirian	Statherian	Calymmian	Ectasian	Stenian	Tonian	Cryogenian	Ediacaran

542 Ma - Phanerozoic eon - Present
542 Ma - Paleozoic era - 251 Ma						251 Ma - Mesozoic era - 65 Ma			65 Ma - Cenozoic era - Present
Cambrian	Ordovician	Silurian	Devonian	Carboniferous	Permian	Triassic	Jurassic	Cretaceous	Paleogene	Neogene	Quaternary

Random Featured Image (Refresh) Dracorex was a dinosaur of the family Pachycephalosauridae, that lived during the Late Cretaceous of North America. The type (and only) species is Dracorex hogwartsia, meaning "dragon king of Hogwarts". It is known from one nearly complete skull (the holotype TCMI 2004.17.1), as well as four cervical vertebrae including the atlas, third, ninth and eighth. These were discovered in the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota by three amateur paleontologists from Sioux City, Iowa. The skull was subsequently donated to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis for study in 2004, and was formally described by Bob Bakker and Robert Sullivan in 2006.

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