Oh, lord, I am convinced. Look at this fossil; it’s a perfect human footprint, with a dinosaur track right on top of it! The people who found it promise that it’s not a fake, they’ve actually done a CAT scan of the rock to show that it is genuine, somehow. This will revolutionize paleontology and shake up the entire field of evolution!
It’s also available for the taking on ebay. Only $5, and more than 10 of them are in stock.
It’s a bit pricey, but worth it for something that would get me an easy publication in Nature. I wonder…I’ve got a gross of nails from the True Cross here that I’ve been selling for the same price, maybe they’d take one in trade?
artconserv says
Have you seen this person’s eBay feedback??? Not seen feedback that low in a long time. Appropriate.
lose_the_woo says
Poor fella…but what an astonishing find! This fossil proves human time travel is possible!
janegael says
I reported it as a fake. I know I should probably try to sell it to all the Christians I know but since I sell on EBay once in a while, I like to keep the site legit. I have to fix my recliner the dogs broke, could you send me about 10 of those nails please?
Cuttlefish, OM says
looks like the ad is not for an actual fossil, but for a subscription to his internet magazine, from which the picture is taken.
Bad, but not a five dollar fake fossil.
Invigilator says
Poor fella, indeed — the bad feedback is because “Casts made outdoors sever rain/wind held up production,” and then there were complaints about shipping, so now you have to go pick it up in Riverside — hey, PZ, you can add it to your itinerary!
lose_the_woo says
Funny. The thought that crossed my mind was gifts for next xmas for my family. My mom would mount it on her wall somewhere I’m sure.
Ben in Texas says
Yeah, I read some of his feedback. Very often, when someone leaves this jerk a negative review, he turns around and accuses them of being an evolutionist. What a weirdo and scam artist.
CanonicalKoi says
Using a CT scan….checking “rock”….determining it to be genuine…..**geology region of the brain explodes trying to escape**
lose_the_woo says
I was referring to the poor fella that was probably turned into dino-nom….you know, as documented by the fossilized record of the event.
CanonicalKoi says
Ah…”Biblical Science News” Is supposedly an online-pub with a Yahoo Group. Here’s the link – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Auldaney/summary Read the summary for more hilarity.
LightningRose says
Reported to eBay as fraud.
CanonicalKoi says
Sorry for the double post, but why the newsgroup is called, “Auldaney” instead of “Biblical Science (sic) News” I have no idea. Maybe they’re trying to throw off the Illuminati (who are also mentioned in the summary).
Jim1138 says
66.7% ebay rating! You can definitely trust this guy.
cactusren says
Hmmm…it actually seems worth the $5 for the hilarity. Too bad he won’t ship them.
Also, I would assume he’s selling casts of the “fossil”, though its a bit odd that it doesn’t specify that anywhere on the page.
dutchdoc says
#4 is right!
He is NOT selling fossils (or casts of them). He’s selling subscriptions to a website! (Hence the “local delivery only” I guess.)
I complained to eBay about the misleading title.
Michelle R says
I’m reading his feedback… How amusing, he sells lots of cheap shit!
“no comunication when I complained about broken cast ,long shipping time
*
Reply by dinosaurology (Apr-03-07 10:50):
Lied about broken in shipment. Refused refund. Deliberate evolutionist attack. ”
JJ says
Reading some of the negative comments on his ebay account, it’s really funny how every time there’s a complaint about quality, ship time or broken product, he makes claims like
lose_the_woo says
Selling it as a fossil is probably not a good idea. Which gave me the idea of selling fossil replicas. I can easily have 40 fossil replicas of a talking snake (larynx structures clearly visible!)(yes, I know it’s soft tissue, but that’s why it’s so amazing!) ready to go within a week! Cha-ching!!
Michelle R says
I decided to complain to ebay as well. That’s not an appropriate title at all.
Louis says
I bought twelve of these.
Of course as a militant evolutionist I only bought twelve, I could have bought a hundred. I could have also gone around to his house, washed his car and given him an anal bleaching for free, but I’m a militant evolutionist (remember?) and we’re all bastards.
{sigh}
Why is it morons always cry conspiracy and oppression when their inefficiency and whackakdoodlery is exposed?
Louis
JJ says
#15 & #4
While that page does make it look like he’s selling the subscription to his online magazine, the comments on his account make it sound like at leased in the past he’s sold casts. Read the comments, many are about how slow shipping was (months it seems for some), how poorly painted that cast is and about how many casts broke in shipping. He turns around and calls them liars, frauds and militant evolutionists
WashingMachine0 says
MASSIVE lulz at the guy’s feedback on ebay. As if we needed another reason to think this was a load of crap.
'Tis Himself, OM says
Yep, it’s a genuwhine rock, all right. CAT scan shows rockicity all the way through.
Hypatia's Daughter says
From the E-Bay site:
Gee, Senior Paleontologist sounds sooo professional, until you add…..for the Creation Research Society. Then, you laugh.
JJ says
From one oif his fossil cast he’s selling:
Duh all “missing links” are are missing. That’s what the adjective “missing” means.
burpy says
@lLouis ha ha
Nerd of Redhead, OM says
Yep, and rolling on the floor in tears belly laugh.
Ant says
@lose_the_woo #2
A time travel explanation is still better than the YEC crap.
Ant says
@lose_the_woo #18
Hey, they’d only be about 10,000 years old, so it could happen!
negentropyeater says
tell me it’s a joke
Antiochus Epiphanes says
You can buy lots of awesome stuff just like this at the Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose Texas. I bought a human finger that was lodged in the fossilized remains of a dinosaur. It has a finger nail and everything.
Miles670 says
PZ YOU BASTARD! I saw that and freaked lol. My head hurt for the entire time it took for me to think about it. Admittedly a few seconds but DONT DO THAT TO ME.
Citizen Z says
Heh. He has his own stunningly designed website. (You can “Look up “Auldaney” on your Internet Search Engine. Like Yahoo.com”)
He doesn’t mention where he got his degree, or even if he has a degree. His eBay listing states he is “Professor” Auldaney, but there’s no indication of which, if any, institute of higher learning he’s on staff. About the closest thing to a professional organization he lists in his bio is the Southern California Paleontological Society, which looks like a society of amateurs/enthusiasts and only requires an $18.50 membership fee.
thedarwinreport says
That seller’s items may be biblical, but his shipping is geological in comparison. Check out all the complaints of slow delivery. Worst feedback rating I’ve ever seen on eBay – 66.7%
I’ve communicated with that seller before. I once asked him about the creationist biased description of his archeopteryx replicas. He insisted his ‘expert’ had checked all the facts.
My expert says he’s a mental defective.
Yubal says
WTF?!?
They sell the SAME footprint thing 10 times ?!?
raven says
If creationists are going to sell fake fossils such as one of a dog skeleton with a dinosaur claw stuck in it, then atheists must be free to sell Xian relics.
Could be quite a lot. Pieces of the true cross, Holy Grails, Shrouds of Turin’s, Jesus foreskins, chunks of rock from the empty tomb and so forth.
Plus more mundane items, Jesus’s coffee cup, stuffed toys, drinking glass, silverware, walking stick, and so on.
Then there would be the Solomon, David, Moses, Abraham, Adam and Eve, Noah, Abel, Cain, and assorted other prophets line.
Ebay might be a little perturbed about it. OTOH, how would selling real fake Xian relics differ from anything the Catholic church or the various modern fundie churches have been doing since the year 1 CE? And how can anyone call them fake when it is questionable whether some of those people ever existed anyway?
Legion says
From Biblical Science News:
Fifteen bucks a page?! Cha Ching!!
Looks like we may have solved our little short-term financial crisis. We’ll just have to come up with some convincing biblical “evidence” like… casts of footprints found at the bottom of the Red Sea, proving that the Exodus really happened.
Creature of the Universe says
I’ll pay $5.01 for fossil (no younger than 1376 BC) with old testament text that has a dinosaur print over it. (text must be leviticus or earlier)
(no higher than $5.19)
Creature of the Universe says
@38 – $7.81 for a dinosaur turd on it…
nathanschroeder1 says
Using Google I found this bone head. He is about six miles from me. Maybe I’ll check his stuff out. Or not.
Nate
nathanschroeder1 says
I don’t know whats with the link at 40. I’m blaming it on scienceblogs. Here is the URL: http://www.auldaney.com/Home1.html
xinit says
That’s nothing….
Not only did Humans and Dinosaurs live together, Sony was there with the walkman…
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/fossil_tech.html
AlgaeGirl says
I always do a little face-palm when I see stupid shit like this out of a town where I went to college…
https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawkIMxUbIH2U79LIJ0Xgw4FnqBF6R4I1W_c says
@ Citizen Z (#33)
“(You can “Look up “Auldaney” on your Internet Search Engine. Like Yahoo.com”)”
I wondered why he said this instead of just linking to the papers directly, so I did as he suggested and looked up Auldaney on Google: all I got was sites that repeat the claim that he has published nine papers, but still no links to the actual papers or even indications as to what they are about and where they were published.
Is he just hoping that if he repeats the claim often enough, we’ll believe him without seeing any evidence? Who would do that? Oh, wait…
Pareidolius says
Artifact schmartifact, I’ve got the One True Pipe™ of J.R. Bob Dobbs (may peas be upon him), now that’s priceless.
Bix12 says
Ostrich?
No, of course not–it’s obviously a dinosaur in pursuit of a god-fearing (and big scary lizard fearing) chosen one–if that poor scmuck would just drop his tortilla-with-image-of-the-virgin-mary on the ground, he just might distract that creature of the lord long enough to get away & live to practice domain over all god’s creatures another day.
Am wondering, too, if Ham has ordered any of these ancient artifacts for his creationist museum? Seems like it’d be a big hit there.
KyBoiler says
This is hilarious. On his listing for an archeopteryx cast (which is a modern bird with teeth, bony tail, and claws, like other modern bird fossils) he talks about EVILutionists creating fake “missing link” feathered dinosaur fossils as a dark stain on paleontology. Lies to make money for EVILution. He says this not two listings away from his human/trex footprint… that fake fossils are wrong.
Thou shalt not bear false witness, unless it is for jesus.
Caddisfly says
I recognize the dino track! It’s was made by a Bullshitasaurs, a fine example I might add.
Owlmirror says
Hell, *I* recognize that dino track!
It’s the same one as posted here two years ago:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/transparent_fakery.php
What’s the relationship between this Auldaney character, and Alvis Delk and Carl Baugh (Humbug!!)?
Wouldn’t it be funny if this is a “cast” of the first one, so Auldaney is selling casts of the casts?
Devolution in action!
Miki Z says
Auldaney misses the boat again. The print is real, but it’s not human or even human-like: it is a dinosaur with little tiny human-like feet. All of his dinosaur friends make fun of him.
Holytape says
Don’t any of you read the bible. Dinosaurs are in there and the Good Book is never wrong or they would not call it “the Good Book”.
The mention is in John 12:14.
“And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written,”
Of course at the time, the word dinosaur hadn’t been invented, so they used the word “ass.” If they had meant donkey, they would have used the word “donkey”. Jesus rode a dinosaur, and He even fought on too.
Summer Seale says
You know, the more I read about this kind of stuff going on, and the more that I read about the behavior of Creationists everywhere who swallow it up, the more I am tempted to try to find a way to milk them for every penny that they have while still somehow (and this is the impossible part, i know) keeping to my morals as an Atheist and Humanist….
…there must be a way. It’s just not fair that these people spend their money on other idiots and not me.
Botswana Skeptic says
Surely that’s just Barney’s footprint?
boygenius says
Pareidolius @45,
Sshhh! The Pinks are out there, and they’re searching for the One True Pipe like Sauron missing his ring.
Citizen Z says
Not only have they confirmed it with a CAT scan, they also confirmed it with an MRI. The pap smear’s still inconclusive.
Carax says
Prof Myers, you’ve got the nails and I’ve got most of the wood from the cross I found in my back yard. Maybe we should collaborate.
blf says
The nutter’s complete LinkedIn listing is:
Doesn’t claim to be professor, doesn’t mention his degree (or if he even graduated), doesn’t mention education or palaeontology, and suggests that selling badly made casts of poorly-executed fakes (and other gimmicks) is his only business.
negentropyeater says
Anybody who visits Lourdes or the Vatican will notice that so many religiots seem to have a predilection for cheap-crap-fake figurines and souvenirs.
Moggie says
#51:
I think the most that can be said about this is that, unlike many of his followers, Jesus could find his own ass.
blf says
No, as quoted it says “a young ass”. It could be his own, but I’m tempered to read it as an early example of one of xianism’s fundamental purposes: Buggering children.
co says
The fifth (and last) page in a rant about evolutionists. It’s really pure win:
http://www.auldaney.com/T-rexp5.html
englishbobster says
Summer Seale @ 52
I have had thoughts along the same lines. Maybe donating all profits to humanist organizations/charities which rehabilitate brainwashed fundies and creationists? If one doesnt exist then strt one up.
Roestigraben says
Hey, he doesn’t consider all Evilutionists to be rotten to the core: Peter Lason is “extraordinarily excellent” (p3)! Shame he wasn’t considered for the First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence…
'Tis Himself, OM says
co #61
Why is it that nuts always make their websites as unpleasant to read as possible. I’m not talking about what they write, I’m thinking of Auldaney’s use of white letters on a bright blue background.
Miki Z says
The “Peter Lason” he refers to seems to be “Peter Larson”. Slightly outdated, but I’d never heard of this guy before: http://whyfiles.org/029dinos/sue3.html
Greg Laden says
This is Brilliant! I’m going to start making these. Or even better, making a kit for other people to make them. that way I save on shipping and water and stuff.
Stogoe says
I think this may actually be worse than sending someone a live bobcat.
Flea says
Love the e-bay feedback:
Rincewind'smuse says
@ 59,
Which could make him a useful associate in a nightclub late on Saturday night.
Capital Dan says
Why would there even be a human footprint? I thought they used saddles and rode on the dinosaurs’ backs.
Hmm… Maybe this Dino was being taken to the stables?
Givesgoodemail says
I had fun doing a little expansion on this fraud.
Polyester Mather DD says
A sawbuck seems reasonable for the capturing the Missing Link between Bambi and Godzilla
Ouchimoo says
Somebody should make a more realistic looking fossil and ‘sell like this’ except when people order it, they can report all kinds of negative comments when they receive it. That would be because you added a disclaimer and a how to guide on how was carefully sculpted and crafted to make a fake look real. I think that would be funny.
Nomad says
I’m just about ready to call Poe on this wackaloon. In answer to a question about whether the listing is for the fossil or a magazine subscription, he responds thusly:
I automatically corrected those words in my mind the first time I saw them and missed how fantastically screwed up they were, when I went back and tried to pronounce them I realized what a masterful job he’d done on them.
And yet he takes the writer of a later question to task for misspelling real and fossil, but apparently missed that the same person also misspelled dinosaur as “dinosore” and couldn’t even get footprint right.
This just has to be intentional, doesn’t it?
Don’t answer that, I’ve been following this sort of thing for long enough to know better.
rednorsk says
“Biblical Science?”
Quite the oxymoron.
That’s right up there with “Military Intelligence”, “Original Copy”, and “Compassionate Conservative.”
frozen_midwest says
That reminds me of a display I saw many years ago at the Laguna Beach art festival – ‘Genuine Artificial Jade’
Jarred C. says
A simple warning for those who are planing on reporting the ebay item title as “misleading”:
The item is under the catagory “publications,” and therefore, one should asume that they’re not selling an actual fossil or even a cast of one.
Granted, the text is rather confusing, and I wouldn’t trust that guy further than I could throw him.