Researches related to dinosaurs have always drawn a lot of interest among the public. Within this background, we noticed viral social media posts claiming that scientists had recently found the most well-preserved dinosaur fossil and it can be even labelled “dinosaur mummy” also. However, our investigation proved this was part of an April fools’ joke.
Social Media Posts
A photo collection of allegedly the most well-preserved dinosaur scientists had ever found was shared by many social media users on April fool’s day (1st of April) with the below narration.
BREAKING STORY:
Scientists are calling it the best-preserved dinosaur specimen ever discovered. Found accidentally by surveyors near the upper wilson creek area on Pisgah National Forest, this fossilized theropod should be more than 77 million years old, yet the skin, bones and organs seem to be intact. According to the NC Natural History Museum in Raleigh, which recently unveiled the find, the dinosaur is so well-preserved that instead of a ‘fossil’, we could safely call it a ‘dinosaur mummy.’
The researchers examining the find were astounded at its nearly unprecedented level of preservation. The creature’s skin, teeth, and even some of its guts were intact – something they’d never seen before.
“You don’t need to use much imagination to reconstruct it; if you just squint your eyes a bit, you could almost believe it was sleeping,” one researcher said.
Although how the dinosaur mummy could remain so intact for so long remains somewhat of a mystery, researchers suggest that the theropod may have been swept away by a flooded river and carried out to and ancient sea, where it eventually sank to the now exposed ocean floor.
Now believed to be identified as Appalachiosaurus, conservation experts are looking into coding it’s DNA. Dr. James Harvin states, “Knowing this animal once roamed this area, we will be putting all effort possible into restoring the species. We hope to reintroduce it into its ancient stomping grounds”.
There were lot of posts with these set of images, however, the location where the fossils were found was different from each other. Such similar type of posts can be found from here, here and here.
These images being spread viral in Facebook like this.
Even though these had originated as part of April fool’s day joke, the detailed narration meant number of social media users had shared the content. Hence we decided to find out the fact behind these images and claim.
Fact Check
First, we did a Google Reverse Image Search and were able to find the original images related to these posts. The images were of model dinosaurs /artworks exhibited by a museum (Dinosaurier Museum Altmühltal) in Germany.
The photographs were uploaded by a concept and content developer of new natural history museum, University of Zurich called Dennis Hansen. He uploaded these images back in 2021 October, as seen below.
We also found that another Twitter, in which a user also had explained about the model artwork of Dennis Hansen
We couldn’t find any statement made with regards to such a discovery by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences nor could we locate any Dr. James Harvin listed its under staff directory
CheckYourFact had contacted Gray Fossil Site and Museum‘s head curator for another version of similar viral posts, where he had stated that the museum was “frustrated” to hear about the story and had also noted that none of their discoveries have preserved skin or organs. Full fact check can be read here
Also more details about the dinosaur Appalachiosaurus mentioned in the viral posts can be found in this fact check by Snopes.
Despite, there were arguments about the world`s largest dinosaur, we were able to find about the Australia`s largest dinosaur fossil and the article can be read from here. Fossils were found in Argentina also of a huge dinosaur.
Conclusion
According to our investigation, we were able to find out that the images in viral social media posts were not really depicting a fossil or mummy of a dinosaur. The posts were initially created as part of an April Fool’s day joke, but had been shared widely due to the detailed version of the narration. The images were only a model of a dinosaur created by artist Dennis Hansen for an exhibition at a German museum.
