Soft‑tissue errors in fossil reconstructions

CT scans of a spider‑tailed horned viper reveal that an extreme, spider‑like tail is produced entirely by soft tissues while the underlying vertebrae are normal. This shows that reconstructions based only on bones can be seriously misleading about an animal's outward appearance and behavior. — This matters for paleontology, museum exhibits, and public claims about extinct life: skeletal evidence alone can underdetermine appearance, so communicators and scientists must flag uncertainty and seek soft‑tissue proxies.