New Tests Prove Prized British Fossil Is Genuine, Scientists Say

One of the world’s most valuable fossils, showing the evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds, has been re-authenticated with new tests, dispelling accusations that it is a fake, British scientists say.

Researchers from the British Museum of Natural History, rising to defend their most prized fossil, say their detailed tests prove that the specimen was not fabricated in an elaborate 19th-Century hoax.

In a paper to be published today in the journal Science, the scientists say they “reject this forgery hypothesis unequivocally.”

Took Extra Pains

Alan Charig, Angela Milner, Cyril Walker and colleagues at the museum said they went to such pains to refute the allegations because of international publicity surrounding the controversy over the 150 million-year-old fossil.

The argument also had to be settled, they added, so it could not be used by creationists trying to discredit the theory of evolution.

“We hope that this thorough exposition of the facts will demolish, once and for all, any doubts as to the authenticity of Archaeopteryx,” they wrote.

The fossil consists of a dinosaur-like skeleton that is basically reptilian, with teeth, a long bony tail, abdominal ribs and three digits on each hand. But the specimen also contains such bird features as a wishbone, a possible perching foot and fine impressions of feathers around the forelimbs and tail.

Origins Questioned

A group of non-paleontologists, including noted British astronomer Fred Hoyle, said in an article last March that a study of photographs of the fossil showed inconsistencies proving its doubtful origin.

The fossil was found in a limestone quarry in Bavaria in 1861 and the museum added it to its collection the following year. Found just two years after publication of Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species,” the specimen was touted as proof of the evolutionary theory.