Slopfest #27 · 1953 · Vienna
The Missing Link Was Glued On
A famous fossil turned out to be a forgery. Scientists were shocked. The committee took notes.
Museum status: In storage: Basement B, next to the Christmas decorations.
- Venue
- A Heuriger in Grinzing, the back garden
- Attendance
- 281
- Guest of honour
- Hans Moser (grumbled at the fake fossil for twenty minutes, counted as peer review)
- Fun fact
- 1 ancestor, 3 donors, 0 of them related
What happened
The committee unveiled the Grinzing Man, a prehistoric ancestor assembled from a plaster bust, a Tafelspitz bone and a moustache. It was declared authentic by a show of hands. Hans Moser grumbled at it for twenty minutes, which the committee counted as peer review. Its exposure was scheduled for the next morning, then postponed indefinitely.
Elsewhere in 1953
Scientists expose Piltdown Man, hailed since 1912 as a human ancestor, as a forgery combining a human skull and an ape's jaw.
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