A Fossil Spider Discovery Just Turned Out to Be a Crayfish With Some Legs Painted On

ScienceAlert ^ | Friday, December 20, 2019 | Michelle Starr

[SunkenCiv]

When scientists at the Dalian Natural History Museum in China copped a load of a fossil unearthed in the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation, they couldn't believe their eyes. The eight-legged beastie looked like nothing anyone had seen before. Exceptionally preserved.

They described it as a new spider, publishing their analysis in the journal Acta Geologica Sinica, and named the species Mongolarachne chaoyangensis. There was just one problem: the fossil was a big old fake.

The cunning ruse was discovered by invertebrate paleontologist Paul Selden of the University of Kansas, whose spidey senses started tingling when he got his hands on the paper...

The penny dropped, he said, when palaeobiologist Chungkun Shih of Capital Normal University in Beijing remarked that a lot of Cretaceous crayfish are found in the same formation, dating back to around 120 to 130 million years ago...

These images returned four main fluorescence colours: white, which likely indicated a mended crack; blue, which is the mineral composition of the host rock; red, indicating actual fossilised material; and yellow. That yellow fluorescence, the researchers said, is most likely created by oil-based paint.

But it's a very convincing forgery.

[\/\/ayne]

The Proliferation of Fake Chinese Fossils

Exposing the Fraud of Unscrupulous Fossil Dealers and their Magnificent-Looking Fossils

Perhaps no other source for fake fossils has posed such a problem as exists today with fossils from China. We must preface this section to say the fake Chinese fossil market is becoming increasingly sophisticated and changing so rapidly that any fossil now originating in China should be approached with caution. This section deals with only the tip of a massive and growing "iceberg".

Each year, thousands of trusting buyers are duped by both inexpensive and very expensive, highly realistic fakes. More troubling, even scientists have fallen prey to the extraordinary craftsmanship of the Chinese fake fossil artists. In 1999, highly recognized scientists along with National Geographic magazine presented an amazing new discovery of a feathered dinosaur discovered in the Liaoning Province of China. The bird with a dinosaur's tail was named ARCHAEORAPTOR. A year later, it was found to be a clever fake.

[SkyDancer]

Oh those guys ... fun loving and all.

[LouieFisk]

Piltdown Spider.

[alstewartfan]

Nice try, Darwinists. You lose again, like Wile E. Coyote.

[bray]

Science needs evolution to be true whether they have to fake it or not.

[alstewartfan]

Just like global warming ALARMISTS, they are afraid to debate opponents. Just pronounce, “The debate is over!”, run for cover, and use public ignorance and the force of law to prevail.

[alstewartfan]

Good one!!! lol

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

“That’s your ignorance.”

In my defense I was mimicking what large swaths of this country are saying when they throw out accusations of being a science denier.

[DeplorableGirl]

And it's "crawfish" NOT "crayfish"!! We from Louisiana are sticklers about that. 😆

[redshawk]

Aliens. .....

[CIB-173RDABN]

When I was young and ignorant I believed in science. Then I discovered it was a religion. Once DOGMA is established the true believers will fight to the death (figuratively) defending it.

The “open mind” of some scientist are steel traps, once closed never to be pried open with new information.

As the main stream media destroyed themselves over defending Democrats and demonizing President Trump, scientist are destroying themselves over “man made climate change”.

So when I read a story like this I get a chuckle over the gullibility of some scientist.

(Science and research is good it is just I know longer trust them to be honest.)

[SunkenCiv]

Years ago, a US company was having lots of counterfeits of their small appliance products being "returned" because of defects; they traced the source through an importer, all the way back into China; their investigators obtained a photo of the Chinese factory -- it even had their name and logo on the outside of the plant.

[SunkenCiv]

No, some politicians do though.

[faucetman]

From the streams and “cricks” of upstate New York, they are definitely CRAYfish!

[SkyDancer]

Illegals were there too??

[\/\/ayne]

I have heard of something like that - Red China suckers a gullible globalist to build a factory in China so they can produce their goods, then after the factory is built the globalist and employees are evicted and thrown out.

That's a new on me that they just copy the factory!

[Bob Ireland]

Aren't those the Shadow ships from Babylon 5? ...perhaps a billion years old?

[Deplorable American1776]

And they want us to believe Global Warming...

[hanamizu]

More troubling, even scientists have fallen prey to the extraordinary craftsmanship of the Chinese fake fossil artists

---

The fact is that there are well over a billion people living in China. They have a history of craftsmanship. There are millions of Chinese who can paint pretty good fake Van Goughs and fake spiders. And there are hundreds and thousands who can create outstanding fakes. Was it Stalin who said that “quantity has a quality all its own”?

[SunkenCiv]

Yes, some politicians (like Al Gore) do want you to believe that..