Suspicion of data forgery in paper on 'Asteroid impact time that wiped out dinosaurs'



There is a suspicion that a paleontologist who published a paper on ``an asteroid that exterminated dinosaurs'' actually used the conclusions of his former colleagues as they were in the paper. A former colleague points out that the paleontologists' papers, while reaching the same conclusions, used different data sets and that the data is falsified.

Nederlandse paleontoloog beschuldigt Amerikaanse dino-onderzoeker van fraude - NRC

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2022/12/07/nederlandse-paleontoloog-beschuldigt-amerikaanse-dino-onderzoeker-van-fraude-a4150713



Paleontologist accused of faking data in dino-killing asteroid paper | Science | AAAS

https://www.science.org/content/article/paleontologist-accused-faking-data-dino-killing-asteroid-paper

PubPeer - Seasonal calibration of the end-cretaceous Chicxulub impact...
https://pubpeer.com/publications/9B9D041BD4D3633C2D4F99D002DF87

Dutch paleontologist Melanie Durling is suspected of falsifying data.



During's paper concludes that the asteroid impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs was in the spring based on information obtained from sturgeon fossils. It was reviewed and published in February 2022.

It turned out that ``spring'' was the cause of the asteroid destroying the dinosaurs, why did mammals survive in the meteorite collision-GIGAZINE



However, in December 2021, while During's paper was under review, a paper reaching the same conclusion was published in the journal Scientific Reports. The paper was written by Robert DePalma, whom During once shared his research findings with and was once named as the second author of the paper.

In 2017, During participated in excavations in Tannis, North Dakota, as a master's student at VU University Amsterdam. The excavation site was privately owned, and the local manager was Robert De Palma, a graduate student at the University of Kansas Lawrence.

``I've been to quite a few dig sites, but it's one of the most amazing dig sites I've ever been to. We have unearthed several sturgeon fossils in 10 days of excavation.

After Mr. During returned to Amsterdam, Mr. De Palma sent the fossils. After that, it seems that the fossils excavated by Mr. De Palma have also been sent. During examined these fossils at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, and believes that the asteroids known as 'globules', which caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, rained down on the world after they hit Earth. I found a small piece of glass that is the remains of a lava shower that was blown up.



The spherules were found in the sturgeon's gills, suggesting that the sturgeon died within minutes to hours after the asteroid hit. Mass spectrometry analysis of fin osteocytes also confirmed elevated levels of carbon-13 , suggesting that the timing of the collision was spring.

In 2018, During wrote this research as his master's thesis. Shared with Mr. De Palma in February 2019. After that, the paper won an award in the Netherlands, so I decided to submit it to an academic journal and started preparations, and called on Mr. De Palma to become a co-author, but Mr. De Palma did not respond. After all, Mr. Dueling submitted a paper to Nature in June 2021 with Mr. De Palma as the second author.

De Palma's paper, which came out before During's paper was published in Nature in February 2022, reached the same conclusions, but used different data. Mr. Dueling, who read Mr. De Palma's paper, contacted Scientific Reports because he was concerned that the raw data was not published. He also removed DePalma as an author of his own paper.

Mr. De Palma acknowledged to the editors of Scientific Reports that the graphs that should normally be made with graphing software were made by hand, and analyzed the original data Miami-Dade College archaeologist Curtis McKinney died in 2017 and explained that he received non-digital data from his collaborators.

However, Miami-Dade College did not have an operational mass spectrometer in the first place, and if isotope analysis was performed, Mr. McKinney would have had to rely on other research facilities, but Mr. McKinney It has been pointed out that the possibility is low because he has been ill for a long time. DePalma did not respond to a question about the facility where McKinney performed the isotope analysis.

The two scientists who reviewed DePalma's paper said they were satisfied with the reliability of the data and said there was no reason to be suspicious of it, but several people consulted about the data suspicions. The scientists all agreed there were suspicious irregularities, and were surprised to see a paper published with typos, unresolved proofreader's notes, and basic spelling mistakes.

Scientific Reports' senior editor Rafal Marszalek confirmed that he was aware of De Palma's concerns about the paper and that it was being investigated, but declined to share details.

Mauricio Balbi, a high-energy physicist at the University of Regina, who has nothing to do with this research, said, 'If you can produce raw data, it's a crap paper, and if you can't produce raw data, there's a possibility that it's a scam.' I am making a harsh comment.

in Science, Posted by logc_nt