Old Bones

[stickmaker]

Paleontology, is a relatively young science. So young that much of its history - and even much of the work done in the field today - has involved correcting mistakes made due to incorrect ideas and bad data (such as incomplete or damaged fossils). If you don't believe me, just check into the whole apatosaurus/brontosaurus mistake. For those who haven't heard, decades ago a nearly complete brontosaurus skeleton was topped off with a skull from a different, and far less complete fossil. This went on to become, _de facto_, _the_ brontosaurus. Except that a few years back more and better fossils turned up, and the museum curators were told that the skull was from very much the wrong species. Oops... There's a brief description of the matter here: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_011.html This is twenty years old and the author wrote "late 1800s" when he actually meant "late 1870s" but otherwise it is a fair recounting.

Sometimes it seems that every third discovery made by a professional paleontologist is something unexpected. Every month, at least one of the science mags I get announces a major discovery which supports or overturns some long-held hypothesis. It's gotten so that paleontologists who state something dogmatically as being certain are looked on suspiciously by their comrades...

So when you hear someone criticize paleontology as "too hide-bound to admit they're wrong about [whatever]" just smile and tell them they're obviously and demonstrably wrong.