Buzz
The story of human history is often one of expanding knowledge. Today, we understand far more about the world than people did in previous centuries. Yet, this journey has been far from perfect, with many wrong turns along the way.
It might seem impossible to 'discover' something that doesn’t exist—because, well, it doesn’t exist. Yet throughout history, numerous individuals have claimed to find things that were later proven to be fictitious, including mythical creatures, extinct animals, moons, continents, or even chemical elements.
10. Mermaids
On January 8, 1493, Christopher Columbus reported seeing three mermaids while sailing on his first expedition to the Americas. In his journal, he described the mermaids rising from the sea but noted they were not as enchanting as legend had suggested and appeared to have some masculine traits.
Columbus wasn't the first sailor to report spotting mermaids. During that era, many sailors claimed to have seen real-life mermaids while navigating the seas. Today, we understand that these so-called mermaids were actually manatees, large marine mammals that could easily be mistaken for human-like figures from a distance.
Manatees and their close relative, the dugong, are known to rise from the water on their tails, resembling mermaids emerging from the surface. They also have five sets of finger-like bones on their front limbs and can rotate their heads just like humans. It's no wonder sailors thought they were seeing mermaids when they encountered manatees.
9. Florentium
The periodic table is a cornerstone of chemistry. Its structure provides chemists with insights into every element that could potentially exist, even if it hasn't yet been discovered. In fact, certain spaces are left intentionally empty for undiscovered elements.
Decades ago, the periodic table had many empty spaces, and chemists raced to discover the missing elements. The prize for discovering one was the privilege of naming it. Some chose to name the elements after themselves or after the cities where they lived and worked.
Many scientists have falsely reported the discovery of elements that turned out to be non-existent. Some made these errors by confusing impure substances with new elements, while others were motivated by the desire to claim naming rights. Over time, it became somewhat of a trend, with chemists falsely claiming the discovery of elements, only for their rivals to later disprove these claims.
In 1926, Luigi Rolla from the University of Florence in Italy declared that he had discovered element 61 on the periodic table, naming it florentium after his home city. At that time, several other chemists were also attempting to identify the element, and Rolla quickly proclaimed his 'discovery' to be first.
Later, Rolla's colleague, Lorenzo Fernandes, demanded the retraction of the 'discovery.' However, Rolla insisted that florentium was real and sought to destroy Fernandes's credibility. A few months later, another team of chemists from the University of Illinois claimed they had discovered element 61, calling it illinium after Illinois. Chemist Charles James also claimed to have found it.
The claims of florentium and illinium, or any other imaginative name for the element, were ultimately debunked. The true element 61 is promethium, a radioactive element that is rarely found in nature on Earth. Embarrassed, Rolla issued a retraction of florentium in a little-known journal published by the Vatican, using Latin to ensure that few would read it.
8. Brontosaurus
In the late 1800s, American paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope engaged in a fierce rivalry to discover and name the latest dinosaur fossils. This period became known as the Bone Wars.
Both paleontologists frequently raced to announce the discovery of the latest dinosaur before the other. At the same time, they attempted to hinder each other's discoveries, with reports suggesting that they even instructed fossil collectors to destroy any remaining fossils to prevent the other from finding them.
In 1877, Marsh uncovered an incomplete fossil of a long-necked dinosaur missing its head. He announced the discovery of the new species in 1883, but he attached the head of a different dinosaur to the body. He named this creature the Apatosaurus (deceptive lizard).
In 1885, Marsh found fossils of a similar-looking dinosaur and named it Brontosaurus (thunder lizard). However, this so-called Brontosaurus was actually just a more complete Apatosaurus. In 1903, scientists uncovered Marsh’s deception and officially declared the Brontosaurus to be an Apatosaurus. (An Apatosaurus is shown above.)
Brontosaurus was reinstated as its own genus in 2015, but Marsh's 1885 Brontosaurus was still an example of Apatosaurus.
7. Coronium
On August 7, 1869, two scientists, Charles Augustus Young and William Harkness, independently observed a green line around the Sun during a solar eclipse. This discovery, made separately by both, adds an interesting twist to the story. They assumed the line was caused by an undiscovered element, which they named coronium.
Dmitri Mendeleev, who would later develop the periodic table, believed the element was lighter than hydrogen and proposed it be named newtonium. Today, we know that hydrogen is the simplest and lightest element in the universe. We also know that coronium does not exist.
The existence of coronium was disproved in the 1930s when Walter Grotrian and Bengt Edlen revealed that the green line was actually due to highly charged iron. Young and Harkness had mistakenly identified iron as a new element.
6. Triceratops Or Torosaurus?
Triceratops and Torosaurus are two more dinosaur genera that have been subjects of debate. These creatures were once thought to be distinct but closely related species, until two researchers proposed that they might actually be the same.
Triceratops (left above) and Torosaurus (right above) both have three horns on their heads. However, their horns and some facial features are slightly different, suggesting they could be separate species. But paleontologists John Scanella and Jack Horner argued that Torosaurus is simply a fully grown Triceratops. The differences in horns and facial structure are due to changes as the dinosaur matured.
This announcement stirred up concern among fans of the more famous Triceratops. Many worried that their beloved Triceratops would be renamed the less exciting-sounding Torosaurus. However, if the two genera are found to be the same, the dinosaur would most likely still retain the name Triceratops, since it was named first.
The claim that Triceratops and Torosaurus are the same remains unproven and continues to be fiercely debated within the paleontological community.
5. Neith
The fictional Neith was once believed to be a moon of Venus. Its discovery was first reported by the renowned astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini on January 25, 1672. Cassini described the moon as being one-fourth the size of Venus and reported spotting it again on August 28, 1686.
Cassini's discovery was supported by James Short, who claimed to have seen the moon on October 23, 1740. He estimated its size to be about one-third that of Venus or smaller. However, the moon's existence quickly became questionable as several prominent astronomers reported being unable to find it, despite other well-known astronomers claiming to have observed it.
The existence of Neith was largely disproven by the head monk of the Vienna Observatory in December 1757. The abbot stated that he could only spot the supposed moon through one of the observatory's telescopes, while the others detected nothing. He suggested that what he saw was actually a comet, not a moon.
In March 1758, the monk once again observed the elusive moon. While it appeared to be a moon, he concluded that it was merely an optical illusion. In 1887, M. Paul Stroobant suggested that the earlier sightings of the 'moon' were either stars or the result of faulty telescopes.
4. Nebulium
Shifting back to nonexistent elements, in 1864, Sir William Huggins claimed to have discovered an element which he named nebulium. Huggins made his discovery using a spectroscope.
The spectroscope was a device that used a film or prism to split light into various wavelengths. This allowed scientists to detect new elements since each element absorbs and emits light at specific wavelengths. For example, sodium, when heated, emits light ranging from orange to yellow.
Huggins employed a spectroscope to isolate light from a nebula, and in the process, he observed that it emitted light in two distinct green hues. Believing he had discovered a new element since no known element emitted light at those particular wavelengths, he named it nebulium, inspired by the nebula itself.
The existence of nebulium was debunked in 1927 when Ira Bowen determined that what Huggins had identified as nebulium was, in fact, oxygen, though in a state that could never exist naturally on Earth.
3. Themis
In 1905, William Henry Pickering proclaimed the discovery of Themis, which he believed to be Saturn's tenth moon. However, much like Chiron, Themis turned out to be nonexistent. No other astronomer was able to observe it, but the French Academy of Sciences still awarded Pickering the prestigious Lalande Prize for his discovery.
It was later revealed that Themis was a fictional discovery. The true tenth moon of Saturn, Janus, was identified in 1966. Janus and Themis are unlikely to be the same, as they have drastically different orbital paths. Pickering had found his so-called moon in an orbit between Titan and Hyperion, two other moons of Saturn, while Janus orbits much closer to Saturn.
Pickering continued to make unusual claims following his discovery of Themis. In 1921, he asserted that he had witnessed plants growing on the Moon. He also suggested that the shape of the Moon’s Eratosthenes crater was the result of insects residing on the Moon.
Despite his eccentric ideas, Pickering made several significant contributions to the field of astronomy. In 1919, he accurately predicted the existence and position of a planet beyond Neptune, a forecast that proved vital to the later discovery of Pluto. In 1908, he also foresaw the future use of airplanes in military bombings.
2. Chiron
In 1861, the German astronomer Hermann Goldschmidt declared the discovery of Chiron, which he believed to be Saturn's ninth moon. However, many astronomers were skeptical, as they could not detect it. It wasn’t until 1977 that Charles Kowal finally observed the elusive body, revealing that Chiron was a small object orbiting between Saturn and Uranus.
Today, 2060 Chiron is classified as a centaur, a celestial object that orbits between the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. Its earlier classification as a moon, however, led to the identification of Saturn's actual ninth moon. Phoebe was discovered in 1898 by William Henry Pickering, who made the discovery after analyzing the data Goldschmidt had gathered during his 'discovery' of Chiron.
1. Buss Island
While explorer Martin Frobisher is often credited with the discovery of Buss Island, it was in fact Captain James Newton who first spotted it during an Arctic expedition in 1578, which was primarily in search of gold. This oversight is likely due to the fact that the 15-ship expedition was under Frobisher's leadership.
Captain Newton, who commanded the ship Emmanuel on the expedition, declared the sighting of a new island as they passed by Southern Greenland. The island was subsequently named after the Emmanuel, a type of small fishing vessel known as a buss, typically equipped with two or three masts.
Oddly, despite frequent passage through the region, no other ships had ever reported seeing the island. However, no one questioned Captain Newton’s account, and the island was officially added to maps by cartographers. Later sailors, even those who carefully searched for it, reported no sighting of the island at its designated location.
The story shifted in 1668 when Captain Zachariah Gillam claimed to have sighted Buss. Not long after, Captain Thomas Shepherd, representing the Hudson Bay Company, asserted that he had not only seen the island but also set foot on it. Captain Shepherd went on to create a map of Buss Island, naming its various sections after the twelve executives of the Hudson Bay Company. Later, the company was granted a royal charter, bestowing exclusive rights over any discoveries made on the island.
In an attempt to investigate further, the Hudson Bay Company organized a two-ship expedition led by Captain Shepherd to search for the island. Unfortunately, Captain Shepherd was unable to locate Buss Island. The disappointment among the company’s executives was so profound that they decided not to continue the search. However, other vessels still ventured out, yet they, too, failed to find the elusive island.
Ultimately, Buss Island was declared nonexistent by the 18th century. Some theories suggested that it could have sunk due to volcanic activity, but extensive seabed searches found no evidence of any sunken island in that area. Other theories propose that Buss Island may have been a mirage, or perhaps it was confused with another, already known island. There's even speculation that the captains might have mistaken part of Greenland for a new landmass.
