Child's Toy Dinosaur Accidentally Included in Museum Display, Passes Peer Review

The Blackwood County Natural History Museum has quietly removed a plastic toy Stegosaurus from a display case in its Mesozoic Hall after a visiting researcher identified it as 'not a fossil, not a cast, and not even a particularly good toy.' The figurine, a mass-produced children's toy approximately 15 centimeters long and available at most dollar stores, was apparently placed in the display by person or persons unknown and remained on exhibit for nine months, during which time it was described in the museum's audio guide, included in educational materials, and referenced in a peer-reviewed paper on Stegosaurus plate morphology. 'In my defense, the lighting in that case is terrible,' said Dr. Marcus Fenestra, the paper's author, who cited the specimen's plate arrangement in a comparative analysis. 'And the museum's catalog listed it as "Stegosaurus sp., Morrison Formation, provenance unknown." That should have been a red flag, but "provenance unknown" covers about 40 percent of museum specimens, so I didn't question it.' The toy was identified by Dr. Helen Quartzite of the Smithsonian, who was visiting the museum with her six-year-old daughter. 'My daughter pointed at it and said, "That's the same one I have at home,"' Dr. Quartzite recounted. 'I looked closer and noticed it had a "Made in China" sticker on its foot. I then had a conversation with the museum director that I would describe as professionally awkward.' Museum director Tom Alluvium has implemented new accession protocols requiring that all display specimens be verified as 'actually fossils' before exhibition. Dr. Fenestra has submitted a corrigendum to the journal, noting that 'Figure 3B should be disregarded as the specimen is a toy.'