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Bigfoot Hoaxes
Type: Legend. Summary: The legend of the existence of a giant ape native to North America has inspired numerous hoaxes. BIGFOOT HAIKUIf a tree branch falls in the woods and hits Bigfoot, does he make a sound? (by AB) Bigfoot, he saw me. Grabbed me and ran far away. I’ll…
Butterflies of Linnaeus
Type: Scientific hoax. Summary: A hoax butterfly species, invented as a practical joke, fooled many prominent naturalists. Three butterflies owned and described by Carl Linnaeus The three butterflies shown to the right were part of the collection of the great eighteenth-century naturalist Carl Linnaeus. In 1763 he named and described…
Calaveras Skull
Type: Hoax. Summary: A practical joke by miners confused scientists for decades. Front view of the Calaveras SkullOn February 25, 1866 workers found a human skull buried deep inside a mine on Bald Mountain in Calaveras County, California. The skull was located 130 feet below the surface, beneath a layer…
Cardiff Giant
Type: Hoax Summary: A stone figure unearthed in 1869 turned out not to be as ancient as many, at first, believed. HOAX HAIKUWhatever you do, Don’t call him jolly or green. It’ll make him mad. (by AB) Made for cash or pride He’s a man-made Man of stone Guess who’s…
Case of the Midwife Toad
Type: Scientific Fraud. Summary: Scaly bumps that suddenly appeared on a species of toad were offered as proof of Lamarckian inheritance. But the bumps turned out to be injected inkspots. Paul KammererCan acquired characteristics be passed on to one’s offspring? For instance, if a person acquires a limp during their…
Case of the Miraculous Bullet
Type: Scientific Hoax. Summary: A journal article published in 1874 described the case of a woman impregnated by a bullet that had first passed through the testicles of a soldier. In November 1874 an unusual article appeared in the introductory volume of The American Medical Weekly, a Louisville medical journal.…
Duckbilled Platypus
Type: Real creature suspected of being fake. Summary: When western naturalists first discovered the duckbilled platypus, they suspected it was a hoax. HOAX HAIKUThe bizarre creaure In the river must be miffed, ‘Cause he isn’t real (by J) Egg-laying mammal With duck-bill that doesnt quack (Man that is so wack!)…
Feejee Mermaid
Type: Hoax. Summary: Crowds in nineteenth-century America flocked to see what was advertised to be a real mermaid. HOAX HAIKUThe Feejee Mermaid — Is she hot or not? I’d say Definitely not. (by AB) Her great ugliness And the lines of her stitching Mark her as a hoax (by bobbaxter)…
Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer
Type: April Fool’s Day hoax. Summary: An article in Discover described the discovery of a bizarre new Antarctic species. Image that accompanied the article in Discover. The caption read: “Proud and Free, a fierce ice borer bellows a challenge.” The April 1995 issue of Discover Magazine contained a brief article…
Loch Ness Monster Hoaxes
Type: Cryptozoological critter. Summary: The legend of a monster living in Scotland’s Loch Ness has inspired many hoaxes. NESSIE HAIKULurking in the deep, centuries old. Addicted to tourist sushi. (by AB) Like Schroedinger’s Cat it matters not where she is --but that she might be. (by Armando C. Gomez) Through…
Lusus Naturae
Medieval naturalists had a great appreciation of hoaxes, and they spent a lot of time collecting and studying them. However, they didn’t call them hoaxes. Instead, they called them Lusus Naturae, or Jokes of Nature. The Vegetable Lamb, an example of a Lusus Naturae The term Lusus Naturae described any…
Lying Stones of Dr. Beringer
Type: Hoax. Summary: An eighteenth-century professor, upon finding a series of remarkable fossils, believed he had made a great discovery. Unfortunately for him, his colleagues were actually having some fun at his expense. An engraving of a stone bearing the image of an astronomical object, from Lithographiae Wirceburgensis. Dr. Johann…
Mary Toft and the Rabbit Babies
Type: Hoax. Summary: An eighteenth-century English woman claimed to have given birth to rabbits. An 18th-century portrait of Mary Toft. Note the rabbit in her lap. England during the reign of King George I (1660-1727) was full of oddities, shams, and charlatans. King George himself was a bit of an…
Nondescript
Type: Taxidermical Hoax. Summary: A nineteenth-century British naturalist claimed to have discovered a strange creature in the forests of South America. The Nondescript of Charles WatertonWhen Charles Waterton, a famous English eccentric and naturalist, returned to England in 1821 from an expedition to Guiana, he had with him hundreds of…
Patagonian Giants
Type: Rumor. Summary: A rumor that circulated in England in the eighteenth century suggested that Commodore Byron had discovered a race of giants in South America. “A sailor giving a Patagonian woman a piece of bread for her baby."—Detail from the frontispiece to A Voyage round the World, in his…
Piltdown Chicken
The Piltdown Chicken (artist’s reconstruction) On October 15, 1999 the National Geographic Society cranked its publicity machine into high gear to announce the amazing discovery in northeastern China of a 125-million-year-old fossil that appeared to be the long-sought missing link between dinosaurs and birds. For over twenty years paleontologists had…
Piltdown Man
Type: Hoax. Summary: Early twentieth-century paleontologists discovered in a pit in Southern England what they claimed to be the missing link between man and ape. HOAX HAIKUOrangutan jaw with human skull fools Science. Naughty Charles Dawson. (by Nefertari) Got shiny, new teeth? Stain them an attractive brown With Piltdown Toothpaste!…
Stone Age Discoveries of Shinichi Fujimura
One of the ‘smoking gun’ photographs that showed Fujimura burying artifacts By the age of 50, Shinichi Fujimura had established himself as one of Japan’s leading archaeologists. However, his career began as a hobby. He was working at a manufacturing company as a young man in 1972 when he developed…
Stone Age Tasaday
Type: Anthropological Hoax. Summary: A primitive, stone-age tribe found living in a rain forest in the Philippines was later alleged to be an elaborate fake. Table of Contents The Tasaday As A Real Tribe The Tasaday As A Fake Tribe The Revenge of the Tasaday Making Sense of the Tasaday…
Sympsychography
Type: Hoax. Summary: A scientific article describes a new photographic process that is able to capture thoughts on film. A sympsychographic image of a cat. From Popular Science Monthly (Sep., 1896): 601.An article by the famous scientist David Starr Jordan (president of Indiana University and Stanford University) appeared in the…
Traveling Stones of Pahranagat Valley
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: In 1867 Nevada journalist Dan De Quille described some stones with a curious property—whenever separated from each other they spontaneously moved back together. On October 26, 1867 a story appeared in Nevada’s Territorial Enterprise newspaper describing some unusual stones recently found in the Pahranagat Valley of…
Vilcabamba
Type: Anthropological Hoax. Summary: During the 1970s, the Ecuadorian town of Vilcabamba became famous because of the apparent longevity of its residents. The town’s small population appeared to include numerous people over the age of 100. Later researchers discovered that the town’s elderly residents were systematically exaggerating their ages. In…
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There are 6 subcategories for this categoryArticles in category "Science":
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Bigfoot Hoaxes
Type: Legend. Summary: The legend of the existence of a giant ape native to North America has inspired numerous hoaxes. BIGFOOT HAIKUIf a tree branch falls in the woods and hits Bigfoot, does he make a sound? (by AB) Bigfoot, he saw me. Grabbed me and ran far away. I’ll…
Butterflies of Linnaeus
Type: Scientific hoax. Summary: A hoax butterfly species, invented as a practical joke, fooled many prominent naturalists. Three butterflies owned and described by Carl Linnaeus The three butterflies shown to the right were part of the collection of the great eighteenth-century naturalist Carl Linnaeus. In 1763 he named and described…
Calaveras Skull
Type: Hoax. Summary: A practical joke by miners confused scientists for decades. Front view of the Calaveras SkullOn February 25, 1866 workers found a human skull buried deep inside a mine on Bald Mountain in Calaveras County, California. The skull was located 130 feet below the surface, beneath a layer…
Cardiff Giant
Type: Hoax Summary: A stone figure unearthed in 1869 turned out not to be as ancient as many, at first, believed. HOAX HAIKUWhatever you do, Don’t call him jolly or green. It’ll make him mad. (by AB) Made for cash or pride He’s a man-made Man of stone Guess who’s…
Case of the Midwife Toad
Type: Scientific Fraud. Summary: Scaly bumps that suddenly appeared on a species of toad were offered as proof of Lamarckian inheritance. But the bumps turned out to be injected inkspots. Paul KammererCan acquired characteristics be passed on to one’s offspring? For instance, if a person acquires a limp during their…
Case of the Miraculous Bullet
Type: Scientific Hoax. Summary: A journal article published in 1874 described the case of a woman impregnated by a bullet that had first passed through the testicles of a soldier. In November 1874 an unusual article appeared in the introductory volume of The American Medical Weekly, a Louisville medical journal.…
Duckbilled Platypus
Type: Real creature suspected of being fake. Summary: When western naturalists first discovered the duckbilled platypus, they suspected it was a hoax. HOAX HAIKUThe bizarre creaure In the river must be miffed, ‘Cause he isn’t real (by J) Egg-laying mammal With duck-bill that doesnt quack (Man that is so wack!)…
Feejee Mermaid
Type: Hoax. Summary: Crowds in nineteenth-century America flocked to see what was advertised to be a real mermaid. HOAX HAIKUThe Feejee Mermaid — Is she hot or not? I’d say Definitely not. (by AB) Her great ugliness And the lines of her stitching Mark her as a hoax (by bobbaxter)…
Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer
Type: April Fool’s Day hoax. Summary: An article in Discover described the discovery of a bizarre new Antarctic species. Image that accompanied the article in Discover. The caption read: “Proud and Free, a fierce ice borer bellows a challenge.” The April 1995 issue of Discover Magazine contained a brief article…
Loch Ness Monster Hoaxes
Type: Cryptozoological critter. Summary: The legend of a monster living in Scotland’s Loch Ness has inspired many hoaxes. NESSIE HAIKULurking in the deep, centuries old. Addicted to tourist sushi. (by AB) Like Schroedinger’s Cat it matters not where she is --but that she might be. (by Armando C. Gomez) Through…
Lusus Naturae
Medieval naturalists had a great appreciation of hoaxes, and they spent a lot of time collecting and studying them. However, they didn’t call them hoaxes. Instead, they called them Lusus Naturae, or Jokes of Nature. The Vegetable Lamb, an example of a Lusus Naturae The term Lusus Naturae described any…
Lying Stones of Dr. Beringer
Type: Hoax. Summary: An eighteenth-century professor, upon finding a series of remarkable fossils, believed he had made a great discovery. Unfortunately for him, his colleagues were actually having some fun at his expense. An engraving of a stone bearing the image of an astronomical object, from Lithographiae Wirceburgensis. Dr. Johann…
Mary Toft and the Rabbit Babies
Type: Hoax. Summary: An eighteenth-century English woman claimed to have given birth to rabbits. An 18th-century portrait of Mary Toft. Note the rabbit in her lap. England during the reign of King George I (1660-1727) was full of oddities, shams, and charlatans. King George himself was a bit of an…
Nondescript
Type: Taxidermical Hoax. Summary: A nineteenth-century British naturalist claimed to have discovered a strange creature in the forests of South America. The Nondescript of Charles WatertonWhen Charles Waterton, a famous English eccentric and naturalist, returned to England in 1821 from an expedition to Guiana, he had with him hundreds of…
Patagonian Giants
Type: Rumor. Summary: A rumor that circulated in England in the eighteenth century suggested that Commodore Byron had discovered a race of giants in South America. “A sailor giving a Patagonian woman a piece of bread for her baby."—Detail from the frontispiece to A Voyage round the World, in his…
Piltdown Chicken
The Piltdown Chicken (artist’s reconstruction) On October 15, 1999 the National Geographic Society cranked its publicity machine into high gear to announce the amazing discovery in northeastern China of a 125-million-year-old fossil that appeared to be the long-sought missing link between dinosaurs and birds. For over twenty years paleontologists had…
Piltdown Man
Type: Hoax. Summary: Early twentieth-century paleontologists discovered in a pit in Southern England what they claimed to be the missing link between man and ape. HOAX HAIKUOrangutan jaw with human skull fools Science. Naughty Charles Dawson. (by Nefertari) Got shiny, new teeth? Stain them an attractive brown With Piltdown Toothpaste!…
Stone Age Discoveries of Shinichi Fujimura
One of the ‘smoking gun’ photographs that showed Fujimura burying artifacts By the age of 50, Shinichi Fujimura had established himself as one of Japan’s leading archaeologists. However, his career began as a hobby. He was working at a manufacturing company as a young man in 1972 when he developed…
Stone Age Tasaday
Type: Anthropological Hoax. Summary: A primitive, stone-age tribe found living in a rain forest in the Philippines was later alleged to be an elaborate fake. Table of Contents The Tasaday As A Real Tribe The Tasaday As A Fake Tribe The Revenge of the Tasaday Making Sense of the Tasaday…
Sympsychography
Type: Hoax. Summary: A scientific article describes a new photographic process that is able to capture thoughts on film. A sympsychographic image of a cat. From Popular Science Monthly (Sep., 1896): 601.An article by the famous scientist David Starr Jordan (president of Indiana University and Stanford University) appeared in the…
Traveling Stones of Pahranagat Valley
Type: Media Hoax. Summary: In 1867 Nevada journalist Dan De Quille described some stones with a curious property—whenever separated from each other they spontaneously moved back together. On October 26, 1867 a story appeared in Nevada’s Territorial Enterprise newspaper describing some unusual stones recently found in the Pahranagat Valley of…
Vilcabamba
Type: Anthropological Hoax. Summary: During the 1970s, the Ecuadorian town of Vilcabamba became famous because of the apparent longevity of its residents. The town’s small population appeared to include numerous people over the age of 100. Later researchers discovered that the town’s elderly residents were systematically exaggerating their ages. In…