Paleontologists took a closer look at an Italian fossil from 1931. While this ancient fossilized lizard still holds some bones, could it be a partial forgery?
An ancient lizard fossil, renowned for its remarkable preservation and older than the dinosaurs, might be a partial forgery. The fossil, known as,had puzzled experts for decades. Now, it all makes sense. What it was described as carbonized skin, is just paint,” said Evelyn Kustatscher, study co-author and curator at the Museum of Nature South Tyrol,. Despite various articles that described the fossil, it wasn’t analyzed in detail.
The team used microscopy and UV photography to find that the black outline was not fossilized skin, but a type of painted coating. In the past, slathering fossils with a type of varnish was a usual step in the preservation process and was done so the fossil could be fully preserved for many years inside museum archives. Some institutions use this method to keep fossils in great shape.Still, the researchers hoped that underneath the paint, the organic tissues would still be there to analyze.
Overall, the team found that the fossil was coated in paint to enhance the look of the fossil shape. But, the paint misled scientists into thinking it was a type of skin. But not all was lost, and the fossil was considered only a partial forgery. The authors note that caution should be used when working withuse peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review them for accuracy and trustworthiness.
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