Post by parfive on Feb 22, 2023 14:48:58 GMT -5
We Regret the Fossil Error. It Wasn’t the First.
A recent announcement that a fossil discovery in India was just residue from a bee’s nest
was a reminder of the importance of science correcting itself.
This discovery-that-wasn’t joins a long, ignominious history of paleontological misfires. These range from outright misclassifications to pseudofossils (where a nonbiological process made a pattern that only looks biological) and dubiofossils (weird, ambiguous rocks that are probably not as important as they’re cracked up to be).
Like Tolstoy’s unhappy families, each misidentified fossil comes with its own unhappy story. Many rocks that look lifelike but aren’t — like mineral nodules that resemble fossil poop and supposed “dinosaur eggs” and “dinosaur footprints” — are screened out the very first time a real paleontologist looks at them. Others are just old mistakes, relics of a more primitive scientific past. Still other errors or misreadings persist in fringe sources. Occasionally, though, they penetrate modern scientific enterprise, even through peer review from other experts, especially when key evidence is ambiguous.
www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/science/false-fossils-india-dickinsonia.html
They could have titled it- "Oops.".
