Showing yet again why scientists shouldn't be allowed to name things, this goose-sized dinosaur bears the decidedly un-catchy title Halszkaraptor escuilliei — but in our hearts, it'll always be quackosaurus. Like a velociraptor, the dinosaur had a long, sharp claw on each foot and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Unlike a velociraptor, it also had a pair of broad, flat, flipper-like hands, sort of like a penguin. It also had a long, swan-like neck and a duck-like bill. As you can see, it was sort of a hodgepodge of features, and that's why the scientists who first described it doubted it was the real deal.

Halszkaraptor isn't the "platypus of dinosaurs," but it still inspired some skepticism when it first entered the academic record. "It was so strange that we suspected that it might have been a chimera — a mix of different skeletons glued together. It wouldn't be the first time," said Andrea Cau from the University of Bologna. That strange mixture added up to a very particular sort of lifestyle. With its flappy little arms, it probably chased after fish underwater just like a modern-day cormorant.

It wasn't just the fact that Halszkaraptor was apparently made up of a "greatest hits" of duck and dino features that led scientists to think it might be a [ahem] canard. It also came from a pretty suspicious source. This fossil came out of the black market — and we've already told you how problematic that can be. But after some tests, they determined that it was in all likelihood a legitimate fossil. For one thing, the 15-inch (38-centimeter) block of stone that the dinosaur was embedded in was found to be completely solid after it was scanned by a particle accelerator. And second of all, the parts of the skull outside of the stone were identical to those that were still locked inside. In other words, unlike its diet, the fossil of Halszkaraptor isn't very fishy at all.

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