THE SO-CALLED “MISSOURIUM” OR “MISSOURI LEVIATHAN”
JUNIOR SKEPTIC No. 61 (2016)
The first few decades of the 1800s brought a wealth of new scientific knowledge about fossils and the prehistoric past. Dinosaurs, ice ages, prehistoric people—naturalists solved one mystery after another. With the understanding of evolution, they cracked the biggest case of them all: how the astonishing variety of living and fossil species came to be.
Then and now, science is about using evidence to solve mysteries. But not everyone cares that much about honestly uncovering nature’s secrets. Throughout history there have always been scoundrels willing to create fake mysteries and fake evidence in order to make money.