#fake fossil

[akiiran]

Fossil of Scansoriopteryx.

(close-up below the cut)

[romigodon]

Y’all wanna see an awesome fake fossil someone dropped off that the museum?

[itsdetachable]

Does anyone have that page where a guy got fake fossils to try and prove evolution isn't real because he has like fossils of tigers from millions of years ago or something like that? One of those wild-eyed Christian evolution is fake pages? I can't find it now...

[fossilera]

Yes, yes the trilobite in amber was an April fools day joke.  A surprising number of people fell for it judging by the emails I got and replies on Tumblr.  

1. Trilobites went extinct during the mass extinctions at the end of the Permian, over 200 million years before the Eocene period. In fact the genus Paradoxides was a Middle Cambrian genus, so it was much older. 2. Given that trilobite were exclusively aquatic animals it would have been basically impossible to have one fossilized in amber which is fossilized tree sap. 3. The species name is "contrafaco", Latin for fake. The photo is courtesy of 10 Tons studios in Denmark which does amazing zoological and paleontological models. It was also featured on the cover of Geology Today that ran an article on fake amber.