Nebraska man was a hoax
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Contents |
Claim
Nebraska Man (Hesperopithecus haroldcookii) was described on the basis of a single tooth which turned out to come from a peccary. This tooth was used to construct an entire species, complete with illustrations of the primitive man and his family.
Responses
- Nebraska man plays no major part in science today, nor does it seem to have ever played any major part in science.
- It was not a hoax, it was an error. Pig teeth and human teeth look very similar.
- Such errors do happen, but they are usually exposed and discredited by the scientific community itself.
- Many fossil finds are based on significantly more than a tooth, so this can hardly be used as a criticism of paleontology in general.
- The illustration that creationists commonly cite regarding Nebraska man was not created or endorsed by scientists and was clearly labeled as not being based on any Nebraska man fossils.
- add more responses
Links
- Foley, Jim, 2001. Creationist Arguments: Nebraska Man. [1]
- Mellett, James S. and John Wolf, 1985. The role of "Nebraska man" in the creation-evolution debate. Creation/Evolution 16: 31-43. [2]
Further Reading
- Gould, S. J., 1991. An essay on a pig roast. In Bully for brontosaurus, pp. 432-47. New York: W.W.Norton.
