There’s a long history of intrigue, sabotage, and general mischief in the paleontology world. During a period known as the ‘bone wars’ scientists were constantly trying to one up each other, and sometimes, knock their competition down a peg. We haven’t seen as much of that lately, maybe because it’s simply not common knowledge anymore, or maybe because we learned to get along a little better. Thankfully for those of us who like to see the smartest people in the world goof off sometimes, it seems the bone wars may have dealt one final blow to our esteemed scientists.

It seems a renowned fossil, famous for its preserved soft tissue, is actually just paint on a rock.

It’s been sited in books, papers, studies, you name it, since around 1930. You just can’t make this stuff up.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley