Recent Geoethical Issues in Moroccan and Peruvian Paleontology

The cases of Joan Corbacho from Spain, and Klaus Hönninger and Carlos A. Vildoso from Peru, considered by some as prestigious paleontologists in their countries, are discussed here. The first one is a fossil collector and trader that, without a minimal scientific knowledge, published ca. 20 papers with proposals for a dozen new trilobite taxa coming from different Paleozoic formations in the Moroccan Anti-Atlas. Descriptions of new taxa seem formally valid but are rather inadequate, often based on poorly preserved material of dubious geological provenance, and mostly published as papers without peer review in a local journal, managed by a private museum connected to the Seminary of Barcelona. Besides this, part of the published and figured trilobite specimens were later offered for sale in the internet, sometimes accompanied with a ‘certificate of authenticity’ signed by the Museum director. Mr. Corbacho is acting also in Spain as a judicial expert in paleontology while he is not more than an amateur fossil collector. In Peru, the two cited pseudo-paleontologists lead their official-looking businesses, the ‘MeyerHönninger Palaeontological Museum’ and the ‘Peruvian Institute of Paleovertebrate Studies’, respectively, under names of institutional appearance. The ‘scientific research’ activities of Mr. Hönninger have been basically deactivated by authorities of the Ministry of Culture, and following a public complaint for fraud in the First International Symposium of Palaeontology of Peru held in 2014 in Lima. However, the dealings of the Mr. Vildoso, who has long claimed to have a title on Paleontology from the University of La Plata (Argentina), which he has never been able to show, has experienced a considerable increase, with paleontological heritage contracts with mining companies and the organization of the Dakar Rally. The prominence of the position he has attained is such that he was offered the presidency of the Organizing Committee of the IX Latin American Congress of Palaeontology held in 2016 in Lima, which has ended in an organization disaster and a money scandal.


IN TROD UCTION
s occu rred w ith the Gu pta affair of the H im alayan 'm isplaced ' or 'recycled ' fossils (Talent, 1989;Ru ffel et al., 2012;Shah, 2013), or m ore recently w ith the Mid d le East fossils of the Im am case (Agu irre, 2004;Granier et al., 2009), an increase of p aleontological d ata from relatively rem ote or u nexplored places of the w orld has attracted the incu rsion of opportu nists into the research field .H ere w e present the case of variou s u nethical p ractices A d etected in paleontological stu d ies on the O rd ovician of Morocco, as w ell as others affecting m ore general aspects of Peru vian paleontology.The African case involves ten years of p alaeontological m iscond u ct by a Spanish citizen, and is presented here for the first tim e.The two other cases of unethical procedure by Peruvian citizens have been partially d iscu ssed in a prev ious paper in Spanish (Gutiérrez- Marco et al., 2016), which is m ostly translated and u pdated here w ith new inform ation.The questionable activities of these three ind ividuals w ere already known in circles of specialists, but the pu rpose of this note is to m ake these practices known outside their local areas, as w ell to the media and national ad ministrations, so that no one can claim in the futu re the ignorance of these problems.

THE 'CORBACHO AFFAIR'
This case affecting the N orth -African paleontology began nine years ago, w hen Joan Corbacho, an am ateur fossil collector settled in Sabadell (province of Barcelona, N W Spain) started to publish papers on Ordovician trilobites of Morocco without a minimal scientific know ledge.At the beginning Mr Corbacho coauthored with embriologist Dr. J.A. Vela (University of Barcelona), an am ateur trilobite collector w ho is connected to the Geological Mu seum of the Sem inary of Barcelona, later going alone or in collaboration with other people, most of them nonspecialists as w ell.The geological m u seu m of Barcelona d eserv es attention becau se it has a great responsibility in the origin and d evelopm ent of this affair.This is a non -governm ental institu tion that w as established in 1874 as the N atu ral H istory Cab inet of the catholic sem inary (Vilella, 1999;Taylor et al., 2012), and w hose collection m anagem ent is in the hand s of a large grou p of fossil am ateu rs and volu nteers.From 1987, the m useu m pu blished regu larly the jou rnal Batalleria, as w ell as the non-period ic series M usei Geologici Seminarii Barcinonensis (Series Palaeontologica), w hich started in 2006.The p roblem is that both jou rnals pu blished papers w ith inad equ ate or totally lacking peer review , esp ecially w hen relating to 'd iscoveries' and contribu tions su bm itted by the Mu seu m 's m ain collabor a-tors.This lack of scientific control is in the origin that Mr. Corbacho, p u blishing p referentially in these tw o jou rnals (see list of references), has flood ed the literatu re on N orth A frican trilobites w ith pu tative new taxa, in their m ajority very p oorly d escribed and lacking precise geological context.The im pact of this scientific "noise", m aterialized in alm ost tw enty papers in ten years (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017), varies accord ing to the opinion of d ifferent specialists, bu t its repercu ssions cannot be fu lly envisaged as yet.Tw o view s are being im posed am ong the professional scientists: those w ho prefer to ignore the new taxa proposed by Mr. Corbacho and co-au thors, and those w ho provisionally cou ld accept som e of these problem atic nam es, in the hope of a fu tu re in -d epth review of their d iagnosis, synonym ies and precise stratigrap hic circu m stances that w ill su rely be a d ifficu lt and tim e-consu m ing job.As an exam ple of the first view, Martin et al. (2016) reported a general list of the Lower Ordovician trilobites identified from the Fezou ata Shale, with no reference of the new taxa d escribed by Mr. Corbacho from the same formation (Vela and Corbacho, 2007;Corbacho, 2008Corbacho, , 2014b;;Corbacho andVela, 2010, 2013;Corbacho and López-Soriano, 2012), with the single exception of Anacheirurus adserai (Vela and Corbacho, 2007).In senior synonym y w ith the latter there are probably u p to six other Moroccan species d escribed for the sam e area by Vela (2007), Vela and Corbacho (2007) and Corbacho (2008), p artially review ed by Vela and Corbacho (2011).Most of the figu red specim ens from these 'new species' certainly repr esent p reservational or m echanical variantseither taphonom ic or cru d ely retou ched in -of a single form of the genu s A nacheirurus, w hich is a ju nior synonym of Lehua (Martin et al., 2016).As an exam ple of the second option Gu tiérrez- Marco et al. (2017) have u sed the nam e M egistaspis (Ekeraspis) hammondi (Corbacho and Vela, 2010), bu t stating that 'the original d escription of the sp ecies need s revision, becau se the d iagnostic characters are barely recognizable on the holotype, and the pu rported d ifferences w ith the su bsp ecies M .(E.) hammondi forteyi cou ld be d u e to preparation by fossil d ealers'.On the other hand , the sam e late Trem ad ocian trilobite w as cited as M .Corbacho (2011, pl. 3, fig. 1), and offered with a 'certificate of authenticity' signed by the Geological M useum of the Seminary of Barcelona.Despite the specimen being described as 100% real, it shows clear cosmetic reconstructions in cephalon, thorax and pygidium.To the right is a cluster of paratype specimens of M egistaspis (Ekeraspis) hammondi, figured by Corbacho and V ela (2010, pl. 5C) and also offered by eBay (bottom center) for a total of 32,317.64Euros.Bottom left is an image of the holotype specimen of Parvilichas marochii, figured by Corbacho and V ela (2013, pl. 1, fig. 7) and found cited as 'sold'.Big upper arrows indicate plates and placement of specimens in the corresponding publications, lower ones refer to the same in the web list of sales.A ccording to their records, the name 'elfosil' of M r.Corbacho is used on eBay since February 28, 2004.cal d ealers, becau se a great m ajo rity of his figu red specim ens w ere certainly acqu ired from Moroccan w orkers and fossil shop s.Evid ences of cru d e cosm etic im provem ents are often visible in m any of the trilobites illu strated in his papers, as w ell as probable reconstru ctions of specim ens pu t together from d ifferent ind ividu als, a rather com m on practice in som e local fossil w orkshop s.This proced u re is strange for a person w ho acts as a 'Legal expert in p aleontology and gem ology' and is 'responsible for the Fossil Au thentication and trilobites' in the Geological Mu seu m of the Sem inary of Barcelona.Lacking any tertiary ed u cation in paleontology, Mr. Corbacho has obtained three titles from the Catalonian School of Crim inology r elated to the 'Gem ology and Metales preciosos' (=Gem ology and Preciou s Metals), 'Peritajes y Tasación Ju d icial' (=Official Ap praising) and a d iplom a in 'Falsificaciones y Tasaciones Paleontológicas' (=Paleontological Falsification and Ap praisals).These w ere all received from a private center, collaborating w ith the also p r ivate Eu ropean University Migu el d e Cervantes of Vallad olid , w hich offers access 'w ithou t acad em ic requ isites'.Mr. Corbacho is presid ent of his ow n 'Associaciò d e Perits i Taxad ors d e C atalu nya' (five m em bers).Abou t fossil fakes and their recognition and legal exp ertise in paleontology he has w ritten several papers w ith very elem ental and obviou s exam ples (Corbacho, 2009(Corbacho, , 2015;;Corbacho andMartínez, 2014, 2015;Corbacho and Send ino, 2015;Corbacho et al., 2007Corbacho et al., , 2011Corbacho et al., , 2015) ) and som e m ad e-u p statistics (Corbacho et al., 2015, fig. 1).Despite this presu m able experience and exp ertise and , as m entioned above, Mr. Corbacho established new species of trilobites based on m aterial coarsely reconstru cted or highly retou ched by Moroccan d ealers.This is the case, for instance, of A saphellus cuervoae (Corbacho and López-Soriano, 2012), a trilobite w ith exceptionally long and transverse genal spines, obviou sly generated as an 'im provem ent' w ith epoxy paste, probably based on poorly preserved specim ens of A saphellus stubbsi (Fortey, 2009), a trilobite characterized by long m ou stache-like genal spines.The fact that the type m aterial of A .cuervoae com prises retou ched ind ivid u als w ith 6 and 7 thoracic segm ents, instead of 8 as occu rs in all other asaphid s, also points to paleontological falsification.Bu t there's m ore: regard ing the sam e species and m aterial -all of com m ercial origin , Corbacho and Calzad a (2014) specu late w ith the existence of a possible sexu al d im orphism d efined by the size and their occu rrence in p airs, w here they interpret that these cou ples cou ld have fossilized w hen m ating, after a su d d en d eath by 'gases of volcanic origin'.This is the scientific level of p apers pu blished in Batalleria, that som e often listed in the acknow led gem ents people having explicitly sh ow n their d isagreem ent w ith the content of certain m anu scripts, and that latter see their nam e acknow led ged in the pu blication (com .pers.Dr. J. Esteve, Dr. S. Zam ora and Dr. I. Rábano).With regard to the paleontological d escriptions of new trilobite species, all of them are very sim plistic and often bold , fu ll of m easu rem ents taken from reconstru cted m aterial bu t ou tsid e com m on taxonom ic practice.H e has often ch osen the w orst specim en (least com plete or w orst p reserved ) as holotyp e, leaving the par atypes for private collections.Occasionally tw o holotypes have been selected for the sam e sp ecies (as for Symphysops stevaninae; López-Soriano and Corbacho, 2012), and som etim es the holotype lacks the d iagnostic characters (like the paratype w ith eyes and -abrad edpygid iu m , as op posed to the holotype cranid iu m of Degamella sendinoae; Corbacho, 2011).Once there is the ad d ed valu e of having been illu strated in a pu blication, Mr. Corbacho has o ffered som e p aratypes for sale on eBay or throu gh his com p any's w eb site (Fig. 1), and even the holotype appeared as "sold ".After these practices w ere d enou nced by the au thors in tw o international m eetings (October 2015 and Au gu st 2016), Mr. Corbacho took off the w ebpage section on 'trilobites for sale', from w hich w e have com piled the im ages in Fig. 1.Mr. Corbacho, how ever, keeps pu blishing p apers m ainly regard ing Ord ovician trilobites, not only d ealing w ith those of the Low er O rd ovician Fezou ata Shale (Corbacho and López-Soriano, 2016;Corbacho et al., 2017), the form ation w hich preserves the Fezou ata Biota (Lefebvre et al., 2016), bu t also the m ore u nknow n Up per Ord ovician Tafilalt Biota (Vela and Corbacho, 2009;Corbacho, 2011;López-Soriano and Corbacho, 2012;Corbacho and Kier, 2011;Corbacho and López-Soriano, 2013c;Corbacho et al., 2014).Throu gh his 'Fosilart' com pany he has annou nced tw o m ore papers and a book on Ord ovician Moroccan trilobites, ed ited by the Geological Mu seu m of the Sem inary of Barcelona.Besid es this geological per iod , Mr. Corbacho has exp and ed -occasionally send ing m aterial to professional p aleontologists -to the stu d y of the Cam brian trilobites of Morocco (Geyer and Corbacho, 2015) as w ell as Devonian trilobites from the Anti-Atlas (Corbacho andLópez-Soriano, 2013a, 2013b;Corbacho, 2014aCorbacho, , 2014c;;Bignon et al., 2014).Finally, Mr. Corbacho has sent som e non -trilobite fossils to a Czech specialist p rod u cing tw o joint notes (Valent et al., 2013;Valent and Corbacho, 2015), and recently has w ritten general papers (Corbacho et al., 2016;Corbacho and H amm ond , 2017).Most of the coau thors of Mr. Co rbacho's p apers are also am ateu r paleontologists (J.A. Vela, F.J. López-Soriano, C. Kier), fossil collectors (K.H am m ond , D. Martínez Bau tista, J.A. Cu evas, E. Moreno), non -trilobite specialists (A.Ait Ad d i, S. Calzad a, C. Send ino) or even fossil d ealers (M.Tahiri).

THE 'HÖN N IN GER AFFAIR'
In 2009, the Peru vian m ed ia reported that Klau s H önninger Mitrani, com pu ter w orking as an am ateu r paleontologist, had es-

THE 'VILD OSO AFFAIR'
This case overlaps in tim e w ith the previou s one bu t even m ore convolu ted , given that its protagonist, the pu blicist Carlos Antonio Vild oso Morales, claim ed at the beginning to have grad u ated as a p aleontologist in 1990 from the University of La Plata (Argentina).A statem ent d enied by his acad em ic record , w hich proves that he only attend ed seven su bjects of the d egree in Biology, of w hich he passed three, lo sing his statu s as a regu lar stu d ent in 1991.After ganizing the Rally Dakar 2014, in ord er to pr oceed to the d em arcation of 'in situ ' vertebrate fossil skeletons that cou ld be affected by the layou t of this fam ou s race (Fig. 3).Other sou rces of fu nd ing for the institu te inclu d e the organization of itinerant paleontological exh ibitions, the sale of ed u cational m aterials and the pu blication of a m agazine (Vild oso Morales, 2012).The jou rnal Contribuciones Paleontológicas del Instituto Peruano de Estudios en Paleovertebrados, the 'official pu blication' of the IPEP, is not traceable by bibliographic m eans.In the cover im age of its first nu m ber (vol. 1 for the year 2013, accord ing to the w ebpage of the IPEP) it ind icates the ISSN 225-2797 (sic).Bu t in the ISSN global d atabase the jou rnal appears as initiated in 2010 u nd er the ISBN nu m ber 2225-2797, lacking a d eposit in the N ational Library of Peru as shou ld be expected .Another anom aly is that this jou rnal is not inclu d ed in the World Cat d atabase, w hich raises d ou bts over its existence.Being an active person in the m ed ia of his cou ntry and in social netw orks, Mr. Vild oso regu larly w orks as a research p aleontologist, d espite the absence of recognized paleontolog ical training, w hich can be qu alified as a kind of u nqu alified practice.The resu lts of his alleged investigations, in som e cases totally invented paleontological d iscoveries, w ere 'pu blished ' by the jou rnal of the IPEP and in som e conference abstracts that have assu m ed , in good faith, the integrity of its au thors.There is no record of international research pu blications w ith Mr. Vild oso as au thor or co-au thor, nor d oes he ap pear w ith any in the N ational Directory of Science and Technology Researchers of Peru .From the jou rnalistic inform ation it is d ed u ced that Mr. Vild oso possess a valu able collection of Peru vian fossils, estim ated by him self at abou t 50,000 specim ens, that he ap parently keeps in his private resid ence, accord ing to a personal interview pu blished by the Peru vian jou rnal La Repú blica.Only in this early article (Janu ary 14, 2013), he qu alified him self as a 'lover of p aleontology -bu t not a paleontologist'.H ow ever, in March 2016, and acting as Presid ent of the IX Latin Am erican Congress of Paleontology, his cu rricu lu m vitae changed to 'a researcher w ith alm ost three d ecad es of experience in vertebrate p aleontology', teaching for several years in the program of Archeology of the University San Lu is Gonzaga of Ica (Fig. 3).The position of Mr. Carlos Vild oso as Chairm an of the Organizin g Com m ittee of this congress d eserves m ore attention.This m eeting w as held in the m ain bu ild ing of the Ministry of Cu ltu re in Lim a betw een Septem ber 20-24, 2016, w ith the IPEP in charge of treasu ry throu gh a personal bank accou nt of its d irector.
The nu m ber of accou nting irregu larities w ere su ch, that Mr. José Apolín, representative of the Ministry of Cu ltu re and acting as chairm an of the Ethics and Regu lations of the Peru vian Congress d efined the hand ling by Mr. Vild oso a 'planned em bezzlem ent', w hich w ou ld have affected that m inistry and scientists from 14 cou ntries.The econom ic balance p resented by the presid ent at the end of the congress w as very u nsatisfactory also in w ord s of Dr. Jean -N oël Martínez, w ho acted as chairm an of the Scientific Com m ittee of a congress that had a m inu scu le local p articipation (6 posters from Peru ).

FIN AL REMARKS
Exam ples of recent m ethod ological and ethical m iscond u ct in paleontological science affecting Morocco and Peru are presented here.Most of the form er rem ain u nknow n ou tsid e the limited circles of specialists bu t cou ld introd u ce confu sion in the fu tu re.There is an im portant risk that these p oor d escriptions and contam inated Moroccan d ata m ay be u tilized for r egional geology or in global paleontological d atabases, affecting the conclu sions reached in paleogeographical, stratigraphical or other geological analyses.The latter p roblem is the social projection so far reached by the false Peru vian paleontologists d eteriorating the im age of tru e professional paleontologists of this And ean cou ntry.The activities of the Sp anish fossil collector and trad er Mr. Joan Corbacho led to the pu blication of several d ozen new trilobite taxa com ing from Morocco, in absence of tru e scientific taxonom ical stu d y and precise geological d ata abou t the d ifferent type localities.The type m aterial of the new species selected to be hou sed in institu tional repositories is barely repr e-sentative, w hile m u ch better specim ens rem ain in private hand s.The best-p reserved paratypes have been in part offered for sale in internet (even the figu red specim ens) w ith a 'certificate of au thenticity' signed by the d irector of the Geological Mu seu m of the Sem inary of Barcelona, the sam e institu tion that ed ited the jou rnals w here the papers d escribing the new Moroccan species w ere pu blished w ithou t any scientific control or peer-review process by sp ecialists.Mr. Corbacho consid ers him self as a tru e 'expert in p aleontology' in the m u seu m and d em onstrates his cond ition by pu blicizing him as a m em ber of the Sp an ish Society of Paleontology (w hich is op en to all types of public).Despite his p rivate titles in p aleontological falsifications and ap praisals, m any of the new trilobite species proposed by Mr. Corbacho are based on specim ens retou ched by Moroccan d ealers.This fact, ad d ed to the lack of precise stratigraphic inform ation and a good taxonom ic stu d y, introd u ces m ore problem s than benefits to N orth African paleontology.The false history as paleontologist of Mr. Klau s H önninger w as d eleted from Wikiped ia in early 2014, after being classified as 'p rom otional' by several ed itors, and becau se it exclu sively contained references to non -scientific jou rnalistic articles.Apart from that, he is the au thor of a sm all book entitled Buscando al gigante ('Looking for the giant', San Marcos Ed ., Lim a 2014), referring to the cam paigns to find the 'Megalod ón' (= the giant shark Otodus (M egaselachus) megalodon) in the Ica d esert.The contents that Mr. H önninger now d issem inates in social netw orks are m ostly im p regnated w ith philosophical, environm ental and archeological connotations, or show ing its ongoing personal op position, for exam ple, to "trash TV" and the retu rn of the Rally Dakar to Peru , but w ith only few paleontological references.H ow ever, by the beginning of N ovem ber 2016 Mr. H önninger erroneou sly ap peared in the list of the 'Five Peruvian Scientists ad m ired by the w orld ', an initiative from Cienciactiva (= 'Active Science'), w hich d epend s from the Consejo N acional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica (CON CYTET, an equ ivalent to the USA N ational Science Fou nd ation -N SF).Upon this error being realized , the people responsible replaced Mr. H önninger's nam e by that of a Peru vian scientist of u nqu estionable intern ational rep u tation.H ow ever, Mr. Carlos Vild oso w as recently reported to the Minister of Cu ltu re of Peru by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, requ esting an investigation into the organization and financing of the IX Latin Am erican Congress of Paleontology.This international society accu sed him of seriou s irregu larities experienced by m em bers of the paleontological scientific com m u nity w ho p articip ated in the m eeting, su ch as keynote speakers not issu ed w ith airline tickets, sched u led field trips not celebrated and w ith u nretu rned fees to particip ants that had p aid in ad vance, besid es a general d isorganization and lack of scientific coord ination and attention to particip ants.A sim ilar stat em ent has been pu t ou t by the Geological Society of Peru as w ell as by Dr. Rod olfo Salas-Gism ond i, d irector of the Departm ent of Vertebrate Paleontology of the N atu ral H istory M useu m (N ational University of San Marcos, Lim a).The latter has pu blished on the internet nu m erou s accred ited d ocu m ents on these accusations and others on the lack of ethics of Mr. Vild oso.This w as replied by Mr. Vild oso asking for a pu blic retraction of these statem ents in Febru ary 10, 2017, w hich to this d ate has not taken place.Parad oxically, researchers from the N atu ral H istory Mu seu m of Lim a are alm ost the only ones that prod u ce relevant paleontological resu lts m easu red in term s of the im pact factors established by international d atabases (WoK, Scopu s...), follow ed by few other u n iversities and by p aleontologists of IN GEMMET (the Peru vian Geological Su rvey).With the exception of those from the University of Piu ra and tw o other Lim ean private u niversities, m ost of the renow ned Peru vian paleontologists w ere not invited in d u e tim e to join the cand id acy of Lim a as the site of the IX Latin Am erican Congress of Paleontology, finally presid ed by C.A. Vild oso.Accord ing to w ritten statem ents by Dr. Salas-Gism ond i, Mr. Vild oso is su spected to be involved in the nu m erou s anonym ou s Facebook pages fu ll of racist, sexist and hom ophobic assertions, intend ed to insu lt and d isqu alify the m em bers of the Departm ent of Vertebrate Paleontology of the N atu ral H istory Mu seu m .

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Composition of past screen captures showing M r.Corbacho' M oroccan trilobites on sale in Internet.On the left-half, a topotype specimen of Uralichas hispanicus tardus figured inCorbacho (2011, pl. 3, fig.1), and offered with a 'certificate of authenticity' signed by the Geological M useum of the Seminary of Barcelona.Despite the specimen being described as 100% real, it shows clear cosmetic reconstructions in cephalon, thorax and pygidium.To the right is a cluster of paratype specimens of M egistaspis (Ekeraspis) hammondi, figured byCorbacho and V ela (2010, pl.5C)  and also offered by eBay (bottom center) for a total of 32,317.64Euros.Bottom left is an image of the holotype specimen of Parvilichas marochii, figured byCorbacho and V ela (2013, pl. 1, fig.7) and found cited as 'sold'.Big upper arrows indicate plates and placement of specimens in the corresponding publications, lower ones refer to the same in the web list of sales.A ccording to their records, the name 'elfosil' of M r.Corbacho is used on eBay sinceFebruary 28, 2004.
tablished in Lared o (Tru jillo) the 'first Peru vian paleontological m u seu m ' accord ing to som e new sp apers, or 'the first Latin Am erican paleontological m u seu m ' accord ing to other sou rces.This is the M useo Paleontológico M eyer-Hönninger, a private com pany registered as an association N CP (= 'of u nclassified activity') on Au gu st 17, 2009 by Mr. H önninger, a Ch iclayan born of Germ an and Peru vian d escent.This enthu siast of paleontology had assem bled a collection of genu ine fossils and d inosau r replicas d u ring his stay in Germ any, and intend ed to d issem inate this aspect of science in his cou ntry, raising pu blic aw areness abou t the importance of know ing and protecting the rich Peru vian p aleontological heritage.H is exhib ition of fossils tou red variou s sites (Tru jillo, Chiclayo, plu s the d istricts of Su rco and Villa El Salvad or, in Lim a).At the sam e tim e, som e jou rnalists began to regard him as a tru e pr o-fessional p aleontologist of great national and international prestige.This view w as fu elled by Mr. H önninger him self throu gh Wikiped ia and the social netw orks, w here he w as even treated as a 'pu blic figu re' in Facebook.The m ed ia history of Mr. H önninger inclu d es alleged d iscoveries of im portant Peru vian fo ssils, never backed by scientific pu blications bu t aired to the m ed ia w ith obviou s ignorance of the previou s p aleontological literatu re, su ch as 'the first skeleton of M egalodon fou nd in the w orld' (2006), a com plete Smilodon sku ll (2009), a N eogene braincase m old of Kentriodon (2010), seven new Albian species from the Am azonia (2011), Miocene am ber w ith insects, arachnid s, m icrofossils and rod ent hairs (2011), etc. som e of them even broad casted by the BBC in April 2011.H e even claim ed the au thorship of w hat he called 'H önninger H ypothesis', w hich su ggests that the m ass extinction of the K/ Pg bou nd ary w ou ld have begu n, d u e to clim atic cau ses, five m illion years before the fall of the Yu catan asteroid , lead ing to the d w arfing of certain foram inifera that he has never specified .The backgrou nd of Mr. H önninger' p aleontological know led ge w as ap parently based on tw o fake d egrees in the speciality: the first one obtained at the 'Praehistorica Institu t' of H anau (Germ any), w hich is a private fossil prep aration laboratory, p artly w ith com m ercial pu rposes, d irected by Mr. Ingo Meyer.The second pu tative title com es from the US 'Wyom ing Dinosau r Center', another private com pany that m aintains a p aym ent program (Dinosaur A cademy) to teach how to d ig d inosau rs to high school stu d ents.In its d eleted page in Wikip ed ia, Mr. H önninger w as p roclaim ed an 'hono rary m em ber' of both institu tions.In his m ost popu lar years in the m ed ia, Mr. H önninger starred in an alleged 'encou nter in the third phase' in the Ocu caje d esert, w ith long-head ed extraterrestrials that rem ind ed him of the sku lls d eform ed by the Paracas civ ilization.It w as at that stage w hen he w as interview ed by the Sp anish TV program 'Fou rth Millenniu m ', d eployed to Peru to that effect (Fig. 2).Initially invited by the Peru vian cu ltu ral authorities to intervene in the regu lation of the nation's p aleontological resou rces (Septem ber 2012), Mr. H önninger soon becam e enviou s of the m em bers of the cu rrent Ministry of Cu ltu re, for m aintaining strong personal op position to the traced itinerary of the 'Rally Dakar' to cross the d eserts of Ica and Ocu caje in 2013 and 2015.This race cau sed in 2012 severe d am age in the extensive d eposits w ith fossil cetaceans and other m arine vertebrates, not only by the veh icles, bu t also their participant's cam ps and spectators.This opposition led him to report to the m ed ia that he received d eath threats against him (u sing blood -stained Colom bian bills), and that a grou p of 50 Right Livelihood Aw ard w inners (d escribed by som e as the "Alternative N obel Prize") w rote to the Peru vian governm ent requ esting personal protection for Mr. H önninger (May 2013).Follow ing his d isagreem ent w ith the au thor ities of the Ministry of Cu lture, w ho since 2013 began to m onitor the legality of his p aleonto-logical prospects, Mr. H önninger w as also qu estioned at an invited conference, given in Septem ber 2013, d u ring the First International Sym posiu m on Peru vian Paleontology held in Lim a, w here his m u ltiple opportu nistic activ ities and p rofessional intru sions cam e to light (Gu tiérrez-Marco, 2014).It w as then w hen he began to d ecline in his w ork as a pseu d op aleontologist, shortly after Mr. H signed agreem ents w ith the private u niversity Ricard o Palm a (Lim a), and also w ith the m u nicipality of Lim a, to bu ild the so-called 'Dinop ark' in the H u áscar Zonal Park of Villa El Salvad or (a d istrict sou th of Lim a).This project w as pu blicized as the 'first Peru v ian m u seu m of Paleontology', having a bu d get of abou t US$ 1.3 Million.Bu t after an inform ative exhibition w as held for several years at the site of the fu tu re m u seu m , w ith an open -air d isplay of replicas of skeletons and d inosau r m od els, the project w as 'frozen' and w as finally d ism issed at the beginning of 2015, being r eplaced by the constru ction of sport installations in the sam e area.H ow ever, Dinopark has m anaged to becom e a fu tu re 'Paleontological Them e Park and Mu seu m of H u m anity' w hich, also u nd er the d irection of Mr. H önninger, is expected to be located in the city of Tacna, hopefu lly w ith exclu sively inform ative and d isconnected objectives of research or paleontological rescu e. Tod ay, Mr. Klau s H ön ninger no longer pu blicly boasts of his past statu s as a p aleontologist bu t, after his fru strated p assage throu gh politics (in 2014 opted for the presid ency of the Regional Governm ent of Lam bayequ e), now ad ays he splits his tim e betw een the d irection of the 'Meyer-H önninger Mu seu m ' (virtu al in the present m om ent?) and the p ositions of 'Principal Investigator' and 'Director of International Affairs' of the Instituto de Investigaciones y Estudios Socio-Territoriales (Institu te of Research and Socio-Territorial Stu d ies-IIEST).The latter is a new private com pany (N CP-Association, Lim a 2015), w hose nam e d enotes institu tional a ppearance, and w here H önninger's cu rricu lu m is alm ost u nrelated to Paleontology, althou gh it m aintains several d u biou s references regard in g its p ast and present non -p aleontological activities.

Figure 2 :
Figure 2: A bove: Screen capture of M r.Klaus Hönninger, participating in the television program 'Cuarto M ilenio' ('Fourth M illenium', Channel 'Cuatro', Spain, 2012).The subscript reads 'professor and director of the M useo M eyer-Hönninger of Peru'.Below: M r.Klaus Hönninger with a dinosaur replica in his exhibition in Lima (Peru), from Facebook (open access).
Figure 3: A bove: screen captures and composition of images taken from the website of the IX Latin A merican Congress of Paleontology, showing the president of the organizing committee, M r.Carlos A .V ildoso, with his curriculum.Below: paramilitary esthetics and propaganda among the participants of the company 'Instituto Peruano de Estudios en Paleovertebrados'.Bottom left: the president, M r.Carlos A .V ildoso.Images from Facebook (open access).