| The story behind this:
There's this nutball who digs things up in his back yard and sends the
stuff he finds to the Smithsonian Institute, labeling them with scientific
names and insisting that they're actual archeological finds.
So, here's how his latest submission
was received.
Paleoanthropology Division
Smithsonian Institute
207 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20078
Dear Sir:
Thank you for your latest submission
to the Institute, labeled "211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline
post. Hominid skull." We have given this specimen a careful and detailed
examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory
that it represents "conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston
County two million years ago." Rather, it appears that what you have found
is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety one of our staff, who has
small children, believes to be the "Malibu Barbie". It is evident
that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen,
and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your
prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradiction with your
findings.
However, we do feel that there
are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped
you off to its modern origin:
1. The material
is molded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilized
bone.
2. The cranial capacity
of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimeters, well below the threshold
of even the earliest identified proto-hominids.
3. The dentition pattern
evident on the "skull" is more consistent with the common domesticated
dog than it is with the "ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams" you speculate
roamed the wetlands during that time. This latter finding is certainly
one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history
with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against
it. Without going into too much detail, let us simply say that:
A. The specimen looks
like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on.
B. Clams don't have teeth.
It is with feelings tinged with melancholy
that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon-dated.
This is partially due to the heavy load our lab must bear in its normal
operation, and partly due to carbon dating's notorious inaccuracy in fossils
of recent geologic record. To the best of our knowledge, no
Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon dating is likely
to produce wildly inaccurate results.
Sadly, we must also deny your request
that we approach the National Science Foundation's Phylogeny Department
with the concept of assigning your specimen the scientific name "Australopithecus
spiff-arino." Speaking personally, I, for one, fought tenaciously
for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted
down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn't really
sound like it might be Latin.
However, we gladly accept your generous
donation of this fascinating specimen to the museum. While it is
undoubtedly not a hominid fossil, it is, nonetheless, yet another riveting
example of the great body of work you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly.
You should know that our Director has reserved a special shelf in his own
office for the display of the specimens you have previously submitted to
the Institution, and the entire staff speculates daily on what you will
happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your back
yard.
We eagerly anticipate your trip to
our nation's capital that you proposed in your last letter, and several
of us are pressing the Director to pay for it. We are particularly
interested in hearing you expand on your theories surrounding the "trans-positating
fillifitation of ferrous ions in a structural matrix" that makes the excellent
juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive
appearance of a rusty 9-mm Sears Craftsman automotive wrench.
Yours in Science,
Harvey Rowe, Curator,
Antiquities
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