Photo fraud & the coelacanth

[Geoff Read]

The reputation of Frenchman Georges Serre, an associate of Laurent
Pouyaud who  reprehensibly 'scooped' Erdmann, the discoverer of a new
coelacanth, by naming it first, is under a cloud.

Nature vol 406, 13 July, p114 has announced that a  photo recently
submitted to them by Pouyaud, Seree, and one other, purporting to be a
specimen caught in Indonesia prior to Erdmann's appears to be a faked
composite - Erdmann's photo of his specimen pasted into another photo.
Serre, who originally said he took the photo, is now backtracking - he says
it was taken by a friend who later died. The third person admits the photos
appear to show the same fish ("This is very embarrassing"); there is no
word on what Pouyaud has to say.

This fishy tale reported by:

www.nature.com


--
  Geoff Read <g.read at niwa.cri.nz>