The journal Nature withdrew the article about the smallest Mesozoic dinosaur, as his remains were, apparently, incorrectly classified.
In March of this year Nature published an article by Chinese, American and canadian paleontologists discovered in Myanmar in a piece of amber tiny skull, which, as decided by scientists, belonged to a previously unknown species of dinosaurs Oculudentavis khaungraae, who lived a hundred million years ago. The news has attracted media attention worldwide, and we have also reported this finding.
Doubt that the skull actually belongs to the dinosaur appeared almost immediately — it was too unusual for representatives of these reptiles. In the following months in the world of science sparked intense debate about whose still skull found in Myanmar.
Opponents of the authors, which has gained quite a lot, claimed that it was the skull of a lizard, but lizards and dinosaurs belong to the different groups of reptiles. Several Chinese researchers published an article on this subject on the website bioRxiv, another group of scientists stated that they found similar remains, after learning that I came to the conclusion that it is the remains of a lizard.
Paleontologists, klassifitseerimise skull as belonging to the dinosaur, led the counter, but in the end, the editors of Nature, after weighing all the arguments of the parties, decided to remove the article.
Interestingly, the opinions of these authors about editorial decisions differed — some of them agreed, recognizing that the classification was indeed a mistake. But they all believe that the remains were conducted by qualified, and the study continues to have scientific value.
