Experts have long been amazed that no relative has ever been discovered. After all, the small reptile Tridentinosaurus antiquus had already been found in the Italian Alps in 1931, near the so-called Stramaiolo Formation on the Pinè plateau in Trentino. Only 28 centimeters long, the animal was considered one of the oldest finds in the Alps and was more than 270 million years old. The fossil is still shown in textbooks today because it is essential to illustrate the evolution of early reptiles. And who distrusts textbooks with their secure knowledge?
But such mistrust can be appropriate. This has become clear at least since the latest issue of the specialist magazine Palaeontology has appeared. In one new study A research team led by paleobiologist Valentina Rossi from University College Cork in Ireland and Evelyn Kustatscher from the Natural History Museum in Bolzano reports that the fossil is probably largely a fake. Which could explain why related animals never appeared.
Experts thought the color was carbonized skin
It was such a beautiful find: the four limbs, head and tail are clearly visible from the narrow torso, and a clear black line outlines the entire petrified body. You can even count the five fingers on one paw – almost as if someone had lovingly painted them. Until now, paleontologists had suspected that the black line was left over from the animal’s soft tissues. Such coloring is rarely found, which is what made the find so valuable. “Fossil soft tissues are rare, but when found in a fossil they can provide valuable information, such as external coloration, internal anatomy and physiology,” explains Valentina Rossi in a statement from University College Cork.
That was one reason why the researchers looked at the coloring in detail, using the most modern UV photography and microscopy – and came to a sobering result. Apparently someone simply painted the entire black coloring of the fossil onto the stone with black paint. “The exceptionally good preservation of Tridentinosaurus had amazed experts for decades,” says co-author Evelyn Kustatscher. “Now we know the reason: what was thought to be carbonized skin is simply paint.”
After all, not everything about the find is a fake. The bones of the hind legs do not appear to be a drawing, but actually real fossils. But it is doubtful whether there really was a Tridentinosaurus antiquus and how old the fossils are. And paleontology is one less mystery.