In its April 1995 issue Discover Magazine announced that the highly respected wildlife biologist Dr. Aprile Pazzo had discovered a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. These fascinating creatures had bony plates on their heads that, fed by numerous blood vessels, could become burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speeds. They used this ability to hunt penguins, melting the ice beneath the penguins and causing them to sink downwards into the resulting slush where the hotheads consumed them. After much research, Dr. Pazzo theorized that the hotheads might have been responsible for the mysterious disappearance of noted Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837. "To the ice borers, he would have looked like a penguin," the article quoted her as saying. Discover received more mail in response to this article than they had received for any other article in their history.
Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.

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I believe this was 1995, not 1985, unless it was just reprinted in 1995... I was actually taken in by it when I read it in the April '95 issue, anyway.
Posted by MJ  on  Mon Mar 29, 2004  at  10:00 AM

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Good catch. 1985 was a typo.
Posted by Alex  in  San Diego  on  Mon Mar 29, 2004  at  10:13 AM

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Do you reckon i could pull that one off myself???
Posted by Brianna  in  Australia  on  Tue Mar 30, 2004  at  04:24 AM

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Hi Alex,
about this article, it's interesting to note that "Aprile Pazzo" is a loose translation of "April's Fool" into Italian, therefore the article actually contained a sort of hint...

Moreover, "April's Fool" is called "Pesce d'Aprile" in Italian (April's Fish) and maybe our fish inspired the story, as well as the "missing" noted explorer's name, Poisson ("poisson" = "fish", in French).

Great site!!!

Greetings and thanks for your work
Posted by Donatella  on  Tue Mar 30, 2004  at  03:02 PM

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The naked ice borers were picked up by one of the major wires (I forget if it was AP or UPI) as a true story and was run by a local rag. At the time, I was working as an assistant librarian and was chastised by our administrative librarian because we sent in an unapproved letter informing the newspaper that naked mole rats belong in the same make-believe category as jackelopes and snarks.
Posted by Sarah  in  Chicago  on  Thu Apr 01, 2004  at  02:42 PM

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Um, I remember this story from when I was quite young -- we subscribed to Discover and I was taken in by it. So I'm quite sure 1985 is the more likely date. It's possible they reprinted it in 1995. I remember the letters to the editor they published in the following issue very fondly. This was, I believe, their first in what became a tradition of yearly April Fool's articles, many of which were ingenius, but none of which ever topped this one. I was very disappointed last year, when there were none, and have cancelled my subscription!

In French, "April Fool's!" is said as "Poisson d'Avril!".
Posted by heather  in  dundas, ontario  on  Thu Apr 01, 2004  at  05:53 PM

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I remember being horrified while reading this article, visualizing these gruesome creatures devouring unsuspecting peguins.

The pictures were of a naked mole rat, modified with the "blood horn".

Naked mole rats need no extra help to look ugly!

Posted by Jon Smallberries  in  moon  on  Fri Apr 02, 2004  at  08:51 AM

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It has to be 1995, because I remember falling for this one, and I was not in junior high, which is where I was in 1985.
Posted by Wacky Hermit  in  Undisclosed Mountain State  on  Fri Apr 02, 2004  at  01:36 PM

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Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers RULES!
Posted by Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers  on  Sun Apr 04, 2004  at  05:14 AM

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Yes, I don't know about reprints, but it was first published in 1985, because by 1995 I had long stopped subscribing to Discover Magazine (which had changed owners and had become very "dumbed down," and had started publishing articles with questionable science that supported the owners' other companies).

I saw the Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer raise its head again in a book about science in the X-Files, published in the early-mid 90s. The author, who perhaps had never heard of checking facts, refered to the HNIB as a real creature. I thought at first she was joking, but on rereading, it was apparent that she'd been taken in completely.
Posted by David Farnell  in  Fukuoka, Japan  on  Wed Apr 07, 2004  at  08:13 PM

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this was the first one that took me in, also. i was horrified. when i found out it was a hoax, i had a good laugh but hoped desperately to not have been the only one so taken. when i tried to find a pix years later to make a toy one as a birthday gift to my brother, i typed "hot headed naked ice borer" into the search field. what it returned was all sorts of "hot headed naked" things, not make-believe animals at all. i hurridly shielded the monitor so those images could not be seen. so i got taken twice by these beasties!
Posted by littletwin  on  Fri May 07, 2004  at  10:13 AM

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I would totally have fallen for this... LOL
Posted by Lola  in  Michigan  on  Mon Jun 21, 2004  at  01:56 PM

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It is 1995's issue. My buddy had brought it out for me to have a gander while we were getting high ( the microscopic creatures article is trippy). I was totally taken in, but the HNIB's picture looked a little too odd and too much like a naked mole rat to be a real mammal. So when I saw that it was April's issue I borrowed his copy to look it up. Thanks everyone for clearing this stuff up for us!
Posted by Sillyputty  on  Fri Sep 24, 2004  at  03:45 PM

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It was most certainly published in 1995, I remember I was the editor of a small-town newspaper at the time and I couldn't wait until the following year to publish my own April Fool's joke. We reported that roads were being treated with radioactive material from a nearby nuclear research facility in order to reduce traffic accidents due to icy highways. A cheap imitation, certainly, but still a lot of people were suckered into believing it.
Posted by Don  in  Canada  on  Fri Dec 17, 2004  at  04:52 PM

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Smileys
Oh great, this creature is a hoax and it has taken me until just now to discover it?! I've been going around telling people about the naked mole rate for years, a creature who eats penguins. Then I see a naked mole rat cartoon charactor on one of my kid's shows (Kim Possible) so I decide to find the original acrticle to educate my kids. I find out that the real naked mole rat lives in Africa, so I Google "rat penguin" and find this site. Now I have to go tell my kids that Daddy-o has been duped!
Posted by Dan  on  Sun Mar 13, 2005  at  11:24 AM

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My dad got hoaxed by this one! He couldn't believe it, then I told him about it and he got so embarrased. This was a good one!
Posted by Nicole  in  New Jersey  on  Mon Mar 28, 2005  at  01:23 PM

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Ha ha! That looks a lot like a history teacher i know!

By the way, thanks fo this great site Alex!
Posted by Jon  in  England  on  Wed Mar 30, 2005  at  05:16 AM

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i would have totally fallen for it. i believe there are many things out in the world undiscovered and extrodinary. with that frame of mind, they would have so got me.
Posted by christy  in  south carolina  on  Wed Mar 30, 2005  at  10:29 AM

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i like the pic of me
Posted by hotheaded ice borer  in  antarctica  on  Fri Apr 01, 2005  at  01:02 AM

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I was an editor at Discover at the time--yes, 1995, not 1985--and my colleague Tim, a comic genius, wrote this joke, along with others on previous and subsequent years. I think my favorite was the one about Albert Manque, the physicist who discovered the Bigon, a bowling-ball-sized particle--though Tim's first one, about some archaeologists who uncovered the Holy Grail, was pretty good too. The blood in the grail turned out to be type O-, making Jesus the universal donor. That story was partly a science-writing in-joke. Writers always describe scientists as searching for the "holy grail" of their field. We editors were always having to edit holy grails out of stories.
Posted by Not as funny as Tim  on  Mon Apr 04, 2005  at  09:42 PM

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