Re: Biggest bloopers in VP

[George Engelmann <engelman@cwis.unomaha.edu>]

> >For instance, a fossil pig's tooth was once misidentified as
> >a fossil hominid.  But this is not as bad as it sounds: pigs
> >and humans have very similar diets, and thus have convergently
> >similar teeth.  Thus the error is very understandable.
> 
> If I remember correctly, "Hesperopithecus" is a peccary, and not a pig
> (although I imagine that most creationists are not too familiar with
> 'non-biblical' creatures like the peccary, so they pick the next best
> thing).
>
Although a badly worn peccary tooth and a badly worn hominid tooth are rather
similar in shape and lack of other distinguishing characters, this was a
rather egregious mistake undoubtedly incited by Osborn's strong desire to 
establish the origins of man in North America (scientific jingoism I suppose).
A few years back at the SVP annual meeting a historian of science (I can't
remember his name) presented a paper in which he suggested that Osborn
realized his mistake almost immediately on closely examining the tooth, but 
kept quiet about it to save himself severe embarassment. It seems he had
pretty much accepted the field identification made by Harold Cook (whom Osborn
had instructed to keep his eyes open for primates) before he even saw the 
specimen. The Scopes Monkey Trial was going on at this time and Osborn was one
of the chief defenders of Evolution in the popular press and was primed to 
testify at the trial. I believe he even went so far as to remark that he had
proof of human evolution from Nebraska, the home state of William Jennings 
Bryan, who testified for the prosecution. But Osborn never testified at the 
Scopes trial and became very quiet about Hesperopithecus, and it wasn't until
some time later that W.K.Gregory published a short paper correcting the
mistake. While the illusion lived, fragments of large animal bone were 
interpreted as cultural artifacts, and some people convinced themselves there
was a whole hominid culture preserved at the site.

George Engelmann
engelman@unomaha.edu