[meteorite-list] Pseudofossils, Meteorwrongs, and Newspapers

From: Paul H. <inselberg_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 12:15:56 -0400
Message-ID: <20130629121556.4I0DI.16200.imail_at_eastrmwml205>

Meteorwrongs are not the only scientifically dubious
material that seems to get regularly published in the
local newspaper without any scientific vetting. Not
only are newspaper regularly publish stories about
meteorwrongs without any critical analysis, they also
publish stories about various pseudofossils that
people have found. An example is:

Man claims he found fossilized Bigfoot skull
(Todd May of Utah says he believes his rock is
a Bigfoot skull because he has seen live specimens.)
Portland Press Herald, June 29, 2103
http://www.pressherald.com/life/man-claims-he-found-fossilized-bigfoot-skull-_2013-06-29.html
Image at http://media.pressherald.com/images/portland-press-herald_3768607.jpg

Man believes he found fossilized Bigfoot head
by Mark Saal, Standard-Examiner, June 28, 2013
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Man-believes-he-found-fossilized-Bigfoot-head-4637134.php

Similarly, it must have been an extremely slow day for
news for this paper to have published the below story.
It seems like the editor should have killed this story
politely, but immediately.

Mystery Rocks of Half Moon Bay: Resident Believes
They are Dinosaur Artifacts. (Steve Culbreth shows
off his rock collection in a photo slideshow.)
by Angela Swartz, Half Moon Bay Patch, April 4, 2013
http://halfmoonbay.patch.com/articles/check-out-these-unique-rocks-found-in-town#photo-13816954

The Secret Life of Rocks by Steve Culbreth, Nov. 13, 2009
http://www.slideshare.net/steveculbreth/the-secret-life-of-rocks-2497489

Some articles related to such pseudofossils are:

"Pareidolia." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

Pareidolia: Seeing Faces in Unusual Places
by Kim Ann Zimmermann, LiveScience Contributor
http://www.livescience.com/25448-pareidolia.html

Mimetoliths by R.V. Dietrich
http://stoneplus.cst.cmich.edu/mimetoliths/ http://condor.cmich.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p1610-01coll1/id/3445

Yours,

Paul H.
Received on Sat 29 Jun 2013 12:15:56 PM PDT