Pterossauro: a nova espécie descoberta graças a osso de 200 milhões de anos - BBC News Brasil
Same pattern on repeat:
- single bone
- entire "new species discovered"
- smithsonian team led the research
To comment on that ...
First, many universities judge their scientific staff (professorss, researchers) only according to the number of published papers.
Which is somewhat comprehensible, how can obtuse beancounters (the administration) judge performance in a field they have no clue of ?
Perhaps you heard about the "Publish or perish" maxim the Western academic world has adopted.
Another step up in the ladder are the governmental subsidies to universities and research facilities. Are the resources granted to those ask serious questions and challenge current theories, or to those who strictly adhere to certain narrative ?
I think the anti-scientific climate "consensus" scam answers this question beyond doubt.
On a related note, even inside the academic world it is now accepted that the predominant "peer review" system for scientific publications has a very serious problem ...
And second, the mass media play an important role here. Except of being good with words, they are one of the most ignorant and uneducated group I know. None of them has any understanding of the field they write about - and catering to a public (or a group) which is equally ignorant.
And again, money and publication channel availability assures strict adherence to the current narrative. Which demonstably goes as far as all TV and radio hosts literally reading out from the same script.
Despite being on a monetary leash, many archeological topics are far from clear or "resolved" as they publicly appear.
Inside the academic niche, there are discussions about problems and contradictions going on no outsider ever hears about.
In the end, I think the institution with the most monetary resources sets the direction, which in turn is preset by those who control the respective government.
Although I have hope this is coming to an end, we in the West are about to find out that one can't eat money.
Nor does money make weapons.
