In July of 1944 a man stumbled upon some artifacts while riding his horse. Waldemar Julsrud was curious about his findings and hired a local farmer to search for additional artifacts. The search was conducted near Acambaro Guanajuato Mexico and resulted in a massive discovery of small figurines. These figurines were obviously man-made and depicted all types of creatures. Among the figurines were the images of Egyptians, Sumerians, and a bearded Caucasian. More interesting were the figurines of all types of creatures, a great many of which were of dinosaurs. A wide variety of dinosaur figurines were discovered, some walking on all fours, while others walked on two feet. The figurines show amazing detail and closely resemble modern day thoughts of how dinosaurs may have appeared.
In all more than 32,000 figurines were recovered. For some this discovery is considered proof that man and dinosaurs co-existed on Earth, which would all but totally disprove the theory of evolution. Supporters point to the exacting details of the figurines and suggest such detail indicates the artist had firsthand knowledge of what a dinosaurs looked like. Creationist point to these findings as proof of a much younger earth than the science community accepts and believe it totally de-bunks evolution. These claims, if accurate, would certainly cause a complete reevaluation of evolution and earth history. At present, no credible archeologist or paleontologist support the artifacts authenticity. This should come as no surprise since it would be disavowing all of their training and beliefs and would almost certainly make them outcast within the scientific community. The implications of these findings are significant, but is there any proof for their authenticity. or are they a complete fraud?
Evidence Supporting Fraud
There are a number of reasons scientist believe the Acambaro figurines are not genuine. The first is the sheer number of artifacts recovered. 32,000 artifacts is a huge number and finds of this size are always questioned. Secondly, the local farmer was paid for each figurine he recovered. This of course leads to the possibility the farmer was producing the figurines himself in order to increase his earnings. Where money is involved there is always the risk of fraud. Scientist also point to the excellent condition of the artifacts. If the artifacts had been buried for an extended period of time they should show more scratches and wear from the rocks and soil. The figurines show no such wear. While less convincing, some scholars point to minor errors in the figurines, such as mammal hips on a reptilian body as evidence of the artist being unfamiliar with his subject.
Evidence Supporting The Authenticity Of The Figurines
It should be noted the following evidence is questioned by many scholars. This could be because of flaws in the testing, or a bias against anything indicating the figurines are anything but a fraud.
The figurines were tested using Thermoluminescence (TL Dating) and the results indicated an estimated age of approximately 4500 years. This would place the figurines to approximately 2500 B.C. Further testing was conducted by Don Patton. He claims radiocarbon dates of the figurines places them somewhere between 1500 and 6500 years old. While this is a very wide range, it places the earliest date for the figurines to approximately the 6th century, with a date of 4500 B.C. as the oldest possible date for their creation. If either of these dates are accurate the question becomes, where did the people who made the figurines get their knowledge of dinosaurs? The fossil record did not yet exist, or at least had not yet been discovered, so how did these people create such accurate figurines? Supporters claim they had firsthand knowledge of dinosaurs because they coexisted, a claim directly opposing current scientific theories.
Which side you ultimately believe is up to you, but the scientific community gives the figurines no credibility at all. At the time of the discovery the figurines did receive some wide spread popularity in the general media, but no scholarly papers have ever been produced concerning this, alleged, discovery.
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