SP-001 · 1953
Scientific hoax · Piltdown, England
Piltdown Man — the missing link that was filed, stained, and faked
1953, by fluorine dating and a filed orangutan jaw · Debunked
SP-002 · 1869
Petrified-man hoax · Cardiff, New York
The Cardiff Giant — carved gypsum buried to mock the literal-minded
1869, by geologists and George Hull's own confession · Debunked
SP-003 · 2000
Fossil forgery · Liaoning, China
Archaeoraptor — a “missing link” glued together from two fossils
2000, by CT scans and a matching counterslab in China · Debunked
SP-004 · 1726
Fossil hoax · Würzburg, Germany
Beringer’s Lying Stones — carved fakes planted to humble a proud professor
1726, by the carving of Beringer's own name in stone · Debunked
SP-005 · 1904
Physics hoax · Nancy, France
N-rays — the radiation that lived only in the eye that wished to see it
1904, when Robert W. Wood pocketed the prism and the rays "kept coming" · Debunked
SP-006 · 1888
Spiritualism hoax · Hydesville, New York
The Fox Sisters — the rappings that founded a religion were made by cracking toes
1888, when Margaret confessed and cracked her toe joints on stage · Confessed
SP-007 · 1907
Animal-cognition hoax · Berlin, Germany
Clever Hans — the horse that could not count but could read a face
1907, when Oskar Pfungst showed Hans read the questioner's body · Debunked
SP-008 · 2005
Research fraud · Seoul, South Korea
Hwang Woo-suk — a national hero whose cloned stem cells never existed
2005–06, by a whistleblower, MBC, and an SNU panel · Debunked
SP-009 · 2002
Research fraud · Murray Hill, New Jersey
Jan Hendrik Schön — a paper every eight days, almost all of it invented
2002, by physicists who spotted identical "noise" · Debunked
SP-010 · 1842
Natural-history hoax · New York City
The Feejee Mermaid — a monkey sewn to a fish, sold as a marvel
1842, by naturalists and a skeptical press · Debunked
SP-011 · 1994
Photographic hoax · Loch Ness, Scotland
The Surgeon’s Photograph — a Woolworths toy submarine wearing a plastic-wood neck
1994, via Christian Spurling's account of a toy-submarine model · Debunked
SP-012 · 1983
Photographic hoax · Cottingley, England
The Cottingley Fairies — paper cut-outs on hatpins that fooled Conan Doyle
Confessed in 1982–83 by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths · Confessed
SP-013 · 1986
Anthropological hoax · Lake Sebu, Philippines
The Tasaday — a “Stone Age” tribe that scholars still cannot fully resolve
1986, when journalists found them in houses and modern clothes · Disputed
SP-014 · 2011
Research fraud · Tilburg, Netherlands
Diederik Stapel — the star psychologist who simply typed his data into existence
2011, by three junior whistleblowers and three university committees · Retracted
SP-015 · 1996
Academic hoax · New York, United States
The Sokal Affair — a physicist’s nonsense paper that a journal printed in earnest
1996, by the author's own published confession · Exposed