The News
A site in the US state of North Dakota that may hold evidence of the day the dinosaurs were killed is also at the center of a poisonous academic dispute. “Tanis” contains fossils of fish apparently killed in a violent flood, which some scientists think was caused by the Chicxulub asteroid. A New York Magazine article follows two paleontologists’ race to publish research claiming to show the impact occurred in the spring.
One accuses the other of plagiarizing his work; the other accuses the first of faking his data. The fundamental takeaway, the author says, is that “the field of paleontology is mean.” One professor calls it “a snake pit of personality disorders.”