For more than a century, the fossilized skull of an ancient fish was misidentified as a primate

By Sid Perkins

Web edition: November 26, 2012

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Scientists mistakenly thought for decades that this skull (viewed from above, teeth at top of image) came from a mammal. The extinct creature, recently renamed Leporinus scalabrinii, was in fact an ancient fish that lived in South America.

Credit: Sergio Bogan

Ever make a big error on your homework? A really embarrassing one? Don’t worry. Even well-trained scientists can make a whopper of a mistake now and again.

In the 1890s, paleontologist Florentino Ameghino began studying a small fossil skull that had been given to him by a local collector in Argentina. At first glance, the broad, chisel-like teeth at the front of the skull — the only part not covered with rock — looked like those belonging to lemurs. A distant relative of apes and monkeys, lemurs are a type of mammal that now lives only on the island off the eastern coast of Africa.

But new research now shows Ameghino erred. Big time!

Visit the new Science News for Kids website and read the full story: A fishy mammal ID