China's Dinosaur Fossil Collections Are Vast â But Are They Real?

[Paul <bristolia@yahoo.com>]

China's Dinosaur Fossil Collections Are Vast â But Are They Real?
By Jessie Jiang AND Simon Elegant, Mar. 31, 2009, Time World

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1888548,00.html

This is an article largely about the The Tianyu Natural History Museum.

The article stated:

"In one hall alone, 480 dinosaur fossils are randomly placed in glass
 cases or left in the open air around a room the size of a basketball court..."

and noted:

"More problematic, however, is that there is no way of knowing how 
many of those fossils are real. Chinese scientists say fake fossils are 
so pervasive in Chinese museums that using authenticity as the basis 
for judging a collection's worth is unrealistic."

Also, it is quoted about the  Tianyu Natural History Museum:

""But I was truly astonished by the caliber of its real and valuable 
collections...It probably has a larger collection of complete fossil 
skeletons than any other museum in the world.""

Yours,

Paul Heinrich
Baton Rouge, LA