A 280-million-year-old “fossil” appears to consist largely of paint, archaeologists say after new research. It was found more than ninety years ago in the Italian Alps and was considered a very important discovery.
He wrote that the lizard-like animal, about 20 centimeters long, was discovered in 1931. The Independent. The researchers thought this was a very important discovery that could tell us more about how reptiles evolved.
The strange features of the fossil have led many researchers to wonder what time period the animal belonged to and to which family of reptiles it belonged. This led a team of Italian and Irish researchers to conduct an analysis using ultraviolet imaging.
This analysis revealed that the material that researchers had thought for years to be ancient soft tissue was simply black paint.
Researchers say that in the distant past, it was common to cover fossils with varnish or varnish to preserve the specimen.
However, researchers say the fossil is not entirely a fake. The hind leg bones and femur bones appear to be original, but are poorly preserved.
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