April Fools’ Day fake “major scientific outbreaks”: the astonishing gullibility of scientists

Dr. Miguel de las Doblas Lavigne

 Científico Titular del CSIC, Instituto de Geociencias (CSIC-UCM), Facultad de Medicina (Edificio Entrepabellones 7 y 8),
c/ del Doctor Severo Ochoa 7, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, España, 
Email: doblas@mncn.csic.es
Madrid,  01-01-2021

            As a geologist working for the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) I issued two unrealistic fake “major scientific outbreaks” in Natural Sciences the 28^th of December of 2009 and 2014 (April Fools’ Day in Spain, called “Holy Innocents Day”). If duped, you are expected to endure any type of jokes, be ridiculed to the cry of “inocente” and carry a small paper doll on your back. This is an old tradition in Spain and most media struggle to publish the best “inocentada” of the year.

               I widely publicized these two pseudoscientic news among my colleagues (CSIC, UCM, MNCN, IGEO) and to my astonishment several senior researchers working in contrasted fields of the Natural Sciences believed in their validity (biology, paleontology, petrology, tectonics, etc.). This gullibility might be due to the fact that busy scientists change temporally their open-minds towards more rigid modes making them unable to think logically, as: they haven’t read the news and feel confident about the seriousness of a colleague (leaving aside their sense of humor); they have been puzzled by the technical jargon or the name of the high-impact journal; they are not in the mood to discuss the polemical hypothesis; etc. Additionally, I also hanged these fake findings on my Facebook wall and my Google BlogSpot intended for a non-specialized audience lacking a scientific background and blindly believing these fairy tales.

   The basis of these jokes comes from the concept of mimetolith (Dietrich, R.V.; http://stoneplus.cst.cmich.edu/mimetoliths/) which might be defined as  a natural geological element (small loose stones or minerals, hand-samples, rock-outcrops, topographic features, aerial views of strata, etc.) whose shape and/or surface patterns resemble something else (human or animal faces or figures, plant patterns, manufactured items,  human constructions, etc.) sometimes inducing erroneous interpretations (e.g., the “faces” on Mars).

Figure 1

1)  THE FIRST BIPED IN HISTORY OF MANKIND?--Figure 1--(12-28-2009)

Spanish researchers discover the mould of a primitive hominid skull in the Upper Cretaceous calcareous rocks of Patones de Abajo, Madrid, Spain. “El Diario Regional de Madrid Norte”.

                In a press conference held yesterday in Patones de Abajo (north of Madrid), a team of researchers from the “Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales” led by geologist Miguel Doblas publicized the discovery of a hominid skull-mould that appears to be the oldest in the world. The finding took place near this town in the southern flank of the Spanish Central Range within calcareous series of the Upper Cretaceous constituted by thick strata of limestones and karstified/brechoid dolomitic limestones of Santonian/Campanian age (85-83 My) that were deposited in the western termination of the Iberian marine shallow carbonaceous platform, near the contact with the Variscan Hesperian Massif.

               This primitive ancestor has not yet been classified within the hominid evolution tree and has been provisionally named “Patonepithecus Castellanus”. The specimen belongs to an adolescent anthropomorphic ape of height ≈ 75 cm and cranial capacity of 125 ml. This data would confirm the theory of the gradual cranial increase in the evolution of hominids: 300 ml in the oldest ones (4.4 My) and 1450 ml in modern humans. Scientists believe it might be the genuine missing link in the dawn of our species, in-between apes and hominids. It displays the typical characteristics of most primitive hominids: a flattened calvarium, strong supraorbital flanges, a prominent sagital crest and protruding cheeks. The erect posture of this ancestor seems corroborated by the finding nearby (Pontón de la Oliva) of possible footprint icnites on the same stratified Cretaceous limestones.

               In case this scientific milestone is confirmed it would have extraordinary implications regarding the evolution of mankind:

               1) The age of the first biped primate on Earth would be delayed 80 million years as the oldest-known hominid lived in Africa 4.4 million years ago (Ardipithecus Ramidus). According to Doblas “this finding suggests our ancestor lived in the Mesozoic Era, cohabited with dinosaurs and survived the asteroid impact that extinguished most of them at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary”.

                2) Africa would no longer be the scenario for the dawn and expansion of mankind as universally assumed and an Iberian origin of our species is proposed.

               3) This is the first time a calcareous mould of a fossil hominid skull is found. A major enigma is that there are no bone remains or dentition, possibly as a result of lithification and diagenesis that transformed the original skull into carbonates. This question will probably be solved once the internal structure of the mould is revealed by computerized axial tomographies.

               4) Unlike the rest of primitive hominids that lived in a continental environment, “Patonepithecus Castellanus” lived in a lagoon-type marine setting. In this sense, the most probable hypothesis is that it habited a series of interconnected archipelagos to keep away from big saurian predators and died when trying to reach the coastal forests of the upper Cretaceous. Early hominids were less skilled in trees than apes and less efficient bipeds than evolved humans.

               We should emphasize that this discovery will not be considered by the international scientific community until it has been published in a peer-review specialized journal. In any case, the Patones de Abajo press conference generated a great interest among local scientists. 

Figure 2

2) LITHIC PARTHENOGENESIS: A NEW HYPOTHESIS REVOLUTIONIZING NATURAL SCIENCES ON THE BASIS OF A ROCK FROM TORREPEROGIL, JAEN, SPAIN--Figure 2--(12-28-2014).

Roger Miller, Francisco Rus, Nasserdinne Youbi, Miguel Doblas, Antonio Galindo & Marcos Catena. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 

     The January 2015 issue of National Geographic publishes the outstanding discovery of an exceptional rock in Torreperogil (Jaen) that represents a radical overturn in the field of Geobiology. This rare sample features in the cover page with the illustrative headings "The Birth of a Rock" and "Lithic Parthenogenesis”, a novel hypothesis suggesting that this biological process (considered till now unique to the animal kingdom) might also exist in the mineral world (Miller and others; Nature Geoscience, under revision). An anonymous reviewer commented that "…the surprising hypothesis of lithic parthenogenesis possibly represents a historic milestone that will change many current paradigms in Geology and Biology. Every 50 years new revolutionary theories arise that mark a turning point in the evolution of Natural Sciences (e.g., plate tectonics)”.

This rock was found on April the 1^st by Marina Caballero to the south of the village (Torrebarranco valley). It was later examined by several naturalists of the “Torreperogil Fracking-Free Platform” and one of them immediately realized its exceptional characteristics. In a further example of the growing synergy between local citizens and our research team analyzing the local geology, the so-called "Torreperogil Mother Rock (TMR)" was sent to Madrid for a detailed study at the “Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales” (Miguel Doblas is a scientist working in this institution).

On a first approach, the TMR is an ordinary late Quaternary puddingstone (conglomerate with rounded borders) constituted by three sedimentary fragments cemented by a Ca/C/P-rich alluvial matrix: an upper Miocene (Tortonian) white convex shell of a calcareous pelecipod, a lower Jurassic (Lias) grey dolomitic-limestone pebble and a middle Pleistocene piece of brown calcareous shale.

However, the TMR presents a unique feature that amazed everyone: the shale fragment seems to come out of a small hollow in the convex border of the limestone pebble, even if both have a totally different aspect. Marina Caballero recalls with spontaneity that she collected the rock because "she was tenderly inspired by this small stone with eyes that seemed to make its way out of its smiling mother's womb". The popular wisdom of local inhabitants should never be disregarded and the feminine intuition of Marina was completely right.

Researches of the TMR have been led by prestigious sedimentologist Roger Miller of the "Earth and Planetary School" at Harvard University (USA) along with two other well-known specialists: geochemist Francisco Rus of the Madrid’s “Instituto de Geociencias” and petrologist Nasserdinne Youbi of the Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech (Morocco).

Provisional data obtained with X-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy and Rb/Sr radiometry prove that there is a clear "line of descent” (geochemical, sedimentological and radiometric) evidencing an origin of the calcareous shale in terms of a balanced mineralogical mix of the dolomitic limestone and fossil shell components. On the other hand, while the rare-Earth geochemical content of the shale fragment is atypical of detrital sediments, it is characteristic of chemical precipitation rocks such as the shell or the limestone. A computerized axial tomography conducted at Harvard confirmed that the TMR displays a noticeable convergence of a dense network of curvilinear flowtracks apparently guiding the current of soluble chemical elements toward the calcareous shale (according to fluid thermodynamics). Finally, the detailed observation of the TMR with a high-resolution binocular magnifying microscope enabled the detection of very fine extrusion microstriae in the borders of the shale fragment.

The scientific explanation of this unknown natural phenomenon is still in a speculative stage and will require many field trips, laboratory analyses, experimental tests and petro-geochemical calculations to consolidate it. We are aware that the validation of this heterodox hypothesis will take a long time as the international scientific community is often reluctant to accept new paradigms that defy the established dogmas. In any case, this finding challenges the current classification of rocks based on their origin (sedimentary, metamorphic, igneous, volcanic, etc.) as it does not include TMR-type rocks for which researchers suggest the generic name “bornitites".

Scientists speculate on the possibility that the fluctuation of runoff water with marked seasonality in this arid Mediterranean region (summer drought and autumn precipitations) may have activated submicroscopic internal penetration channels within the "mother rock”, contributing with time to dissolve the friable carbonates and phyllosilicate clays and precipitate them in a preexistent hollow of the limestone pebble. The contrasted cycles of hydration/dehydration characteristic of this arid climatology would be accompanied by alternating phases of dissolution and recrystallization in the tiny cavity where the fragment of shale would slowly grow as a concretion or nodule until it reached the necessary size to force its progressive extrusion from the swelled limestone pebble.

Coinciding with the January 2015 publication of the National Geographic issue, Professor Roger Miller will convene a press conference in the Washington headquarters of this Society where he will explain the revolutionary concept of Lithic Parthenogenesis to the general public and the international scientific community.

Depending on the approval of the Torreperogil town council (legitimate owner of the TMR), Spanish researchers intend to incorporate this exclusive rock to the permanent exhibition "Jewels of Geology” of the “Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales” in Madrid.

Press note released by the “Plataforma Jaen Libre de Fracking” (Jaen Fracking-free Platform. Coordinator: Luis Villar):

 The hypothesis of scientists developing their comprehensive geological and seismological studies in Torreperogil over the past years represents a break in the traditional geobiological taxonomic classifications as it challenges a long-lived paradigm: the process of reproduction is only possible in the world of the so-called "living beings" (animals and plants).

Their astonishing discovery (if finally confirmed by researches under course) can constitute a decisive milestone on a scale comparable to that of the Darwinian Theory of Evolution of Species, the Big Bang theory, the Theory of Relativity or the foundational hypotheses of Quantum Mechanics, thus opening an entirely new scenario where processes till now considered unique to the so-called "living beings" may also be shared by the mineral kingdom, opening new paths to the organicistic vision of the universe (a single living organism called "Gaia" ) that was characteristic of the classical Greek culture and that seems to come back to question in the twenty-first century, once the mechanistic model of modernity has been reconsidered.

The scientific and philosophical consequences of this major finding from Jaen will be definitely very important. In the coming months we will be able to give more detailed information, with results that we already anticipate amazing.