Hidden and mythical organisms Flashcards
What is a sphinx?
body of a lion, wings and head of a woman (greek mythology) head of a king (Egypt)
what is a manticore?
body of a lion; face of a person; can shoot arrows from stinging tail; also a maneater
What is a basilisk?
the king of snakes; one glance at the basilisk brings death
What is a mandrake? Who was the first to describe it?
Root resembles a human figure; when pulled from earth, it emits a shriek that kills anyone who hears it
Josephus AD 1st century
What was the Apple of sodom?
grows at the site of the former towns of sodom and Gomorrah, which god destroyed in his righteous wrath over lustful behaviour. when an apple from the tree is picked, it turns to ashes and smoke in the hands
what is the Ziebra tree?
a tree full of bare-breasted mystics and philosophers
When was the first mention of the unicorn?
Ctesias, Greek historian 398 BC
he wrote of the unicorn living in India. It was larger than a hourse, had a horn half a meter long.
Filings from the Unicorn horn were used for what?
an antidote to poison
When was the unicorn mentioned for the second time in history? Why?
The old testament 3rd century BC
Alexandrian Scho;ars wanted to translate books of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek, and were stuck on the Hebrew re’em, they chose monokeros or unicorn.
What is the actual meaning if re-em?
Ancestor of domestic cattle
What story teller also told the story of the unicorn?
Pliny
What was the legend of the Unicorn in Arab, Jewish, and Christian mythology?
Arab - huge unicorn, could kill elephants
Jewish - unicorn was too big to fit on Noahs ark but survived by treading water
Christian: Unicorn could only be caught by virgins with a large net
Who discerned the source of the unicorn and what was it?
Marco polo, indian rhino
What was Alicorn (supposedly and actually)?
Claimed it was a medicinal unicorn horn and could cure poison, bur was actually a narwhal horn
What is the Upas tree?
Also known as a Javan Tree of death, and that name gave it biblical Credibility
Where was the Upas (javan) tree first mentioned ?
by Friar Oderich of Portenau and then Sir John Mandeville, in The Travels of Sir John Mandelville, who claimed that it made the deadliest poison in the word
Did Sir John Mandeville exist?
No, the book was concocted by an unidentified fraudster
What were the emelishments of the Java tree made by Dr. Englebert (1712), Rumphius (1741) and in the London Magazine (1783)?
Dr. Engelbert: Spoke about it in his book, Emoenitates exoticae, where criminals would collect sap and if they lived they would be free
Rumphius: Claimed a poisonous gas is emitted by the tree
London Magazine: Danger zone radius of the tree was 12-14 miles, where 700 criminals attepted to collect sap and only 70 returned
What literature did the story of Upas tree end up in?
Loves of Plants (Erasmus Darwin)
The Law of Java; of The Poision Tree (London play)
Anchar (Alexander Pushkin)
What could be an explanation for all the dead animals around the Java tree?
confounding of two phenomena; a poisonous tree, and deadly CO2 emmisions from a dormant volcano.
Who set out to confirm the truth about the Upas tree and what did he find?
Leschenault in 1804
He confirmed a poisonous latex from the tree that affects the heart (contains antiarin)
Who was the Piltdown man?
supposed human ancestor whose cranium, jaw and teeth were excavated in sussex, south London, in the period 1908-1915
Players of Piltdown
who was Charles dawson
Amateur fossil collector; collected for the British museum; made most of the Piltdown discoveries
Players of Piltdown
Sir arthur Smith Woodward was who?
chief of the department of Natural History at the British museum; paleoichthyologist; Dawsons ally, helped with excavation
Players of Piltdown
Who is Pierre Teilhard de chardin?
scientist-priest; Jesuit, Theologian, paleontologist; friend of Dawson
Players of Piltdown
Sir arthur Keith
anatomist, paleontologist; influential defender of the piltdown fossil
Players of Piltdown
who was Martin Hilton?
Curator of zoology at the british museum; fossil deposition expert
Players of Piltdown
who was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
author of the Sherlock Holms stories; friend and neighbour of Dawson; Participated in the dig
What were the significant Piltdown discoveries?
Fragments of two humanlike craniums
two humanlike molar teeth
parts of an apelike lower jaw
What was the initial reception of the Piltdown bone discoveries?
possible bones from two different animals
was welcomed by British due to it supporting the brain first hypothesis
What ended up happening to the piltdown man?
Hoax was exposed in 1953 when the bones and teeth were found to be modern. Also the bones had been artificially stained to make them look old, and the teeth had file marks on them
who was suspected for the Piltdown hoax?
charles Dawson
woodward- co conspirator
Hilton had staining equipment in attic
What were these Piltdown bones actually found to be?
Cranium
jaw
teeth
Cranium - human 600 years old
Jaw - orangutan - 500 years old
Teeth - chimp that were filed down
What is the repercussions of hoaxes in science?
Waste of time and ink
Retarded the acceptance of Australopithecus fossils that were found in south Africa as human ancestors. (which were real)
How do false scientific stories arise and spread?
11 possible ways
observations of real organisms
a priori reasoning
confounding of two or more organisms or two or more phenomena
secondhard reporting
mistranslation
exaggeration
authorities giving too much credence
difficulty of verification
appearance in literature
outright fakery
good story
