fake. His note to National Geographic led to consternation and embarrassment. Lewis Simons investigated the matter on behalf of National Geographic. In October 2000, he reported what he termed: It was eventually determined that Archaeoraptor had been constructed from parts of an Early Cretaceous bird Yanornis martini and a small dinosaur Microraptor zhaoianus. In order to increase their profit, fossil hunters and dealers occasionally sell slab and counter slab separately. A reptile fossil also found in Liaoning was described and named Sinohydrosaurus in 1999 by the Beijing Natural History Museum. In the same year the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing described and named Hyphalosaurus lingyuanensis, unaware they were working with the counter slab of the same specimen. Hyphalosaurus is now the accepted name. References Fossilization