A specimen supposedly containing fossilized reptile skin is actually a forgery, according to new research.
Sorry to all fans of Tridentinosaurus antiquus, thought to be a remarkably preserved 280-million-year-old lizard. A new paper published in Paleontology posits that the early reptile fossil is in fact a forgery.
The striking rock was found in the Italian alps in 1931; dark against the background, the soft tissue of all four limbs and the tail appears immaculately spared from the ravages of time.
“The peculiar preservation of Tridentinosaurus had puzzled experts for decades,” said Evelyn Kustatscher, a paleontologist at the Museum of Nature South Tyrol, in a University College Cork release. “Now, it all makes sense. What was described as carbonized skin is just paint.
