Scientists who have been studying what they believed to be a prized 280-million-year-old fossil since 1931 have discovered it’s a dud.
The ‘specimen’ first found almost 100 years ago has now been dubbed a forgery, in a new study.
The fossil of an extinct reptile, called Tridentinosaurus antiquus, was found in the Italian Alps in the 1930s. It was classified as one of the oldest surviving fossils of a backboned creature from the area.
It was seen as a breakthrough discovery, considering the outline of the fossil appeared to include soft tissues – which typically disintegrate over time – which isn’t common in specimens.
Valentina Rossi, a study co-author and paleobiologist at University College Cork in Ireland, said: “Fossil soft tissues are rare, but when found in a fossil they can reveal important biological information, for instance, the external colouration, internal anatomy and physiology.”
The strange but remarkable preservation left researchers scratching their heads over what group of reptiles it belonged to. It was thought to be a part of the group Protorosauria, which went extinct in the late Triassic era and is known for its long necks.
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Scientists believed the discovery would aid in understanding the evolution of early reptiles from this period and beyond.
The fossil became quite the celebrity within palaeontology, being described and linked to within other studies and in books, but wasn’t studied in immense detail. A new study reexamined the fossil and found it was not what they thought it was.
It’s just black paint on a carved lizard-shaped rock surface.
Yep.
Rossi said: “The answer to all our questions was right in front of us, we had to study this fossil specimen in detail to reveal its secrets–even those that perhaps we did not want to know.”
Microscopic analysis found the texture and composition don’t match genuine fossilized soft tissues from other specimens and investigated further. They used ultraviolet photography, which revealed it had been treated with a coating material. This wasn’t that strange, as some older fossils were covered in varnishes and lacquers to preserve them in the past.
“What was described as carbonized skin, is just paint,” said Evelyn Kustatscher, a study co-author and palaeobotanist at Museum of Nature South Tyrol in Italy.
However, the researchers say the fossil itself isn’t completely fake – the bones of the hindlimbs are genuine but terribly preserved. New analysis revealed tiny bony scales, osteoderms, were found, similar to a crocodile. But it’s not the full lizard reptile they believed it was.
The study has been published in the journal Paleontology.
