How UCC researchers used modern tech to reveal a fake fossil

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UCC’s Dr Valentina Rossi explains how she uncovered a fake fossil using ultraviolet photography, and the growing problem of forgeries in the field. Fake fossils are among us, passing almost undetected under the eye of experts all over the world. This is a serious problem – counterfeited specimens can mislead palaeontologists into studying an ancient past that never existed. In a new study, my colleagues and I reveal a surprising truth about a fossil celebrated for decades as one of the best preserved fossils from the Alps. The Tridentinosaurus antiquus was a small lizard-like reptile that lived during the Permian...