The Nebraska Man, formerly classified as Hesperopithecus haroldcooki, was a great evolutionary find. After farmer Harold Cook handed him a tooth in 1917, paleontologist Henry Osborn's mind instantly jumped to the conclusion that the tooth belonged to a previously unknown species of a human transitional form - the Nebraska Man. A picture of the new species was promptly drawn and published in the Illustrated London News, and is depicted below:
In his defense, Osborn was not impressed with the picture, and called it a "figment of the imagination[,] of no scientific value, and undoubtedly inaccurate." In 1925, research showed that the tooth was actually from an extinct species of pig, called the cannary. This recall was made after a scientific expedition visited the area where the tooth had been found and recovered other bones from the creature. The tooth was tossed away, and the entire incident was dismissed as a fanciful flight of imagination. However, one asks oneself, why would there be so many of these "false" claims, and even some hoaxes? The answer that would strike an observer from a point of stasis would be that they just want to find some evidence. But I wouldn't dare to be so presumptuous as to imply this. Oh no, not at all.
Note: If you require resources on either side of the debate, let me recommend two excellent sites to you. For you creationist's out there, look at http://www.answersingenesis.org/; and for you evolutionists, look at it's opposite counterpart http://www.noanswersingenesis.org.au/, These websites contain huge amounts of information, well-backed or not.
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