Triassic? No, Eocene Bird Tracks: How to Fix a Mistake in “Nature”
The whole point of this post is to show that sometimes scientists AND referees make mistakes. This one (see below) the authors corrected themselves, likely after catching hell from colleagues for the last 11 years. The referees are probably glad to retain their anonymity.
Figure 1. Bird tracks originally considered Latest Triassic, now considered Eocene, from Argentina.
It all started a decade ago
when Melchor, De Valais and Genise (2002) reported very bird-like tracks in Latest Triassic sediments in Argentina. This was deemed worthy of the academic journal Nature because, if valid, this would have pushed the origin of birds, or bird-like dinosaurs, back from the Latest Jurassic to the Latest Triassic. A very hot topic! Respected paleontologist referees gave this the green light and it was published.
However, recently this paper was retracted.
Here’s the apologetic abstract
from Melchor, De Valais and Genise (2013)
“Bird-like tracks from northwest Argentina have been reported as being of Late Triassic age. They were attributed to an unknown group of theropods showing some avian characters. However, we believe that these tracks are of Late Eocene age on the basis of a new weighted mean 206Pb/238U date (isotope dilution–thermal ionization mass spectrometry method) on zircons from a tuff bed in the sedimentary succession containing the fossil tracks. In consequence, the mentioned tracks are assigned to birds and its occurrence matches the known fossil record of Aves.”
Hopefully apologies have been accepted worldwide.
These three “came clean” and made their mistake known and I’m sure all three will continue to make important contributions to paleontology.
Unfortunately
Some scientists do not accept apologies or corrections. Some rifle through trash for rejected ideas so they can pillory others. Some scientist can not accept their own mistakes. Some scientists reject solutions to problems by labeling them, “highly idiosyncratic (= a mode of behavior or way of thought peculiar to an individual)” just because they have new ideas not preciously considered by others. These are the scientists who are gumming up the works.
There are several papers that have been rejected by referees clinging to the status quo that solve several enigmas and clear up several mysteries using established scientific methods. Several of those rejections from referees who are “gumming up the works” provided the reason for this blog and reptileevolution.com.
References
Melchor RN, De Valais S and Genise JF 2002. Bird-like fossil footprints from the Late Triassic. Nature 417, 936–938 (2002)
Melchor RN, De Valais S and Genise JF 2013. A late Eocene date for Late Triassic bird tracks. Nature 495, E1–E2 (21 March 2013) doi:10.1038/nature11931
Source: http://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/triassic-no-eocene-bird-tracks-how-to-fix-a-mistake-in-nature/
