Dinosaur Egg Hatches at Museum in Berlin-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Reports have gone viral that a 200 million-year-old dinosaur egg hatched a museum in Berlin.
The Truth:
A fake news website is started the false report that a 200 million-year-old dinosaur egg hatched in Berlin.
World News Daily Report reported that the egg had been kept in a small storage unit near a boiler room. As the story goes, the egg began to incubate when the boiler overheated:
This is an incredible opportunity for science explains Gunther Warburg, paleobiologist at the museum. The Gasosaurus is classified as a carnivorous tetanuran dinosaur of the therapod family originating from China. It remained a mystery because all we had to study upon were a few remains. But now we have a live one! I feel like I’m in Jurassic Park the movie! explains the specialist, visibly enthusiast.
The specimen has already been transfered to the Berlin Zoo, where it can be studied in a secure environment. A few facts have already been made public concerning the creature, including it’s size and weight, allegedly 41 centimeters tall with a weight of 11 kilograms.
The story was shared more than 315,000 times on social media sites, and many readers were duped into believing that it was true. But World News Daily Report’s disclaimer states that the website take “all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content.”
And, as it turns out, the fake news story isn’t even original. It’s a copy of a satirical YouTube video that has gotten nearly 400,000 views since it was posted in 2014.