Yet, don’t we yearn to suspend disbelief—despite our intellect—such that even most curious stories prompted by circumstances of the ‘primeval’ will fascinate, bewilder and charm? Those outrageous claims and yarns about fossils—both real and imagined—are difficult to pull away from sometimes, whether they tell of the extinct … or living variety. Intriguing, no? Accordingly, I proffer two general examples, of contrasting nature, in which fossil foolery was afoot. Here I speak of two very dusty places—Mars and the Old West.
I’ve dabbled in writing a fossil fooler or two myself—yeah, some real knee-slappers! (1) But I’ve moved on from there. It was nearly a quarter of a century ago when NASA scientists dramatically reported discovery of ‘genuine’ Martian fossils, biogeochemical traces of alien biota detected in a meteorite collected on Antarctica. For those of us who truly wished to believe, this was headlining stuff delivered authoritatively by (& pardon me for using a Ghostbusters reference here)—‘Back off, Man!’— scientists. Probably most readers have since forgotten the incident. Regardless, was this merely another case of fake-fossil news?
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Denne historien er fra Spring 2020-utgaven av Prehistoric Times.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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What's New in review
Papo of France creates highly detailed prehistoric animal figures (if not always the most scientifically accurate.)
The Thunderbird
Today we have an excellent, new kit based upon a scene from Ray Harryhausen's cowboys vs. dinosaur film, The Valley of Gwangi.
WHAT I DID ON MY LOCKDOWN
A tyrannosaur in the local area? How cool!
The Forgotten Dinosaur Art of Robert T. Bakker
A renaissance marks a shift in the attitudes and behaviours of an entire society.
Sauropelta
A flock of Deinonychus dart from the dense forest they had been moving through across the broad floodplain to the tree line on the far side.
Reminiscing Over Dinosaurus!
“Alive! After 70 million years! Roaring! Walking! Destroying!” (Ad line for Dinosaurus!)
Longisquama
“Determined to travel from the North Pole to the South Pole, Amos Barrett and his team of adventurers have arrived in the Late Triassic to drive the length of Pangea, the only time in the planet’s history when the continents had fused into one giant landmass.
How to Draw Dinosaurs
Putting it all together, the body of Ankylosaurus
Dinosauriana Imagined 13
Dinosauriana Iberiana (A Spain-ful Endeavor)
Paleoracism
With the nation and much of the western world contending with the fallout of the chronic problem of racism, this is as good a time as any to take a look at the issue within the world of vertebrate paleontology.
