China's Dinosaur Fossils: Vast, but Are They Real?

Time ^ | April 5, 2009 | Jessie Jiang and Simon Elegant

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

But Tianyu is not short on natural history. In one hall alone, 480 dinosaur fossils are randomly placed in glass cases or left in the open air around a room the size of a basketball court, along with Triassic fish and other more recent fossils, primarily from different parts of China. "We are the world's number one," says Zheng Xiaoting, director and keeper of the Tianyu (which means "universe" in Chinese) Natural History Museum's collection of thousands of dinosaur fossils. Though no official records of the collection's number exist, several Chinese paleontologists echo Zheng's claim that Tianyu houses the world's largest collection of dinosaur fossils. "In 10 years' time," says Zheng, who runs the largest business in town, a lucrative state-owned gold mine, which owns the museum, "Tianyu will really put our small town on the world map."

If the world will have them. Tianyu has purchased most of its fossil collection from individuals — an illegal practice permitted by authorities only because it is technically a state-owned institution. More problematic, however, is that there is no way of knowing how many of those fossils are real. Chinese scientists say fake fossils are so pervasive in Chinese museums that using authenticity as the basis for judging a collection's worth is unrealistic. "Granted, there are many fakes and processed [fossils] in Tianyu, like everywhere else in China," says Xu Xing, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who is part of a team that discovered primitive dinosaur feathers in fossils that are now housed at Tianyu. "But I was truly astonished by the caliber of its real and valuable collections...It probably has a larger collection of complete fossil skeletons than any other museum in the world."

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

Well, the curator of the British Museum was grinding out fakes, so why not the Chinese?

Another thread on Chinese fossils: Peking Man

Click here to learn the truth about evolution scientists

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

fake fossils ping

[Berosus]

Piltdown dinosaurs ping.

[count-your-change]

“Fossils, custom made to your specifications. And, at no extra cost, a colorful “artist's illustration” of the actual dinosaur that your ‘one of millions’ fossil came from, in a rainbow of colors.” The Cha Ching Fossil Mail Order Catalog.

O.k., I made that up but it's not that far off.

[almcbean]

Sheesh! Is everything now made in China? Of course in the USA we’d have the UFMU-United Fossil Makers Union

[metmom]

How dare you suggest that they could be fakes?

We must accept them at face value on the word of those who say they found them.

Questioning their authenticity is so.... creationist.

It just goes to show that you guys don’t understand science.

***********************************************************
IBTE

[Clara Lou]

Oh, no...the Chinese would never try to hoodwink the world for money and/or phony prestige!

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks Berosus. I'm only adding this because the author and poster names up there are so comical. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[metmom]

This thread sure died a death.

hmmm......