Museum staff had mistakenly used a silhouette of a Protoceratops which was a sheep-sized herbivore.
To Charlie, the confirmation came as no surprise. “I saw the side-by-side comparison to a human and…the name was not right,” Charlie said. “The name they had was Oviraptor but the dinosaur silhouette showed what was most likely a Protoceratops. I knew from reading my books it was not right so I told my mum and dad.”
Here are the two dinosaurs for comparison. The Oviraptor…
…and the Protoceratops:
A spokesperson for the museum released the following statement in light of Charlie’s discovery:
“The Museum was recently made aware of a mistake in one of our dinosaur galleries. This has now been raised with our exhibitions team, and we will change this as soon as possible. Scientific research and our understanding of the natural world are constantly changing and the Dinosaurs gallery has been refurbished several times to reflect this. Unfortunately, in the process, an error has been made. We are very impressed with Charlie’s knowledge and hope his passion for paleontology continues.”