Hoaxes in China

alt= |thumb |The "Archaeoraptor" fossil in the Paleozoological Museum of China "Archaeoraptor" is the informal generic name for a fossil chimera from China in an article published in National Geographic magazine in 1999. The magazine claimed that the fossil was a "missing link" between birds and terrestrial theropod dinosaurs. Even before this publication, there had been severe doubts about the fossil's authenticity. Further scientific study showed it to be a forgery constructed from rearranged pieces of real fossils from different species. Zhou et al. found that the head and upper body belong

Discredited fossil specimen

The ZKZM-500 is the subject of a July 2018 article in the South China Morning Post describing a laser gun purported to have been developed by Chinese researchers of the Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shaanxi. The article described the device in conflicting terms, both as "non-lethal" but also capable of "instant carbonisation of human skin and tissues". SCMP also published a video demonstrating what appeared to be a laser setting fire to various objects at tens of meters distance.