Reading time: ~3 min read
In 1922, American Museum of Natural History director Henry Fairfield Osborn announced that he had discovered a Pliocene molar tooth fossil near Snake Valley in West Nebraska. This tooth, it was claimed, bore common ape and human features. Before long, a profound scientific debate had commenced on the subject. Some interpreted this tooth as coming from Pithecanthropus erectus while others said it was more human. This fossil that created such major debates was given the name "Nebraska Man." A "scientific" name followed immediately after: Hesperopithecus haroldcooki.
Reconstructions of Nebraska Man's skull and body were produced on the basis of this single tooth. Things went even further as pictures showing Nebraska Man's family in their natural habitat were published. All these scenarios were produced from just one tooth. Evolutionist circles adopted this "ghost man" so strongly that when a researcher called William Bryan opposed such definitive pronouncements being made on the basis of a single molar, he attracted enormous wrath.
In 1927, however, other parts of the skeleton were found. These showed that the tooth belonged neither to a human being nor to an ape or monkey. It was realized that the tooth belonged to a species of extinct American wild pig called Prosthennops. William Gregory titled a paper in Science magazine in which he announced this "Hesperopithecus: Apparently Not an Ape Nor a Man."87
Science writer Hank Hanegraaff explains the developments as follows:
In 1922, A TOOTH WAS DISCOVERED IN NEBRASKA. With a little imagination the tooth was connected to a mythological jawbone, the jawbone was connected to a skull, the skull was connected to a skeleton, and the skeleton was given a face, features, and fur. By the time the story hit a London newspaper, not only was there a picture of "Nebraska Man" but there was also a picture of "Nebraska Mom." All of that from a single, solitary tooth. Imagine what might have happened if a skeleton had been discovered. Perhaps a yearbook would have been published!
Sometime after the initial discovery, an identical tooth was found by geologist Harold Cook. This time the tooth was attached to an actual skull, and the skull was attached to the skeleton of a wild pig. Thus, Nebraska man, known by the "scientific" designation Hesperopithecus haroldcooki, has been unmasked as a myth rather than a man in the making.88
As a consequence, all pictures of Hesperopithecus haroldcooki and its "family" were hastily removed from the literature. Nebraska Man is an important indication of how Darwinists can produce an utterly fantastic scenario of evolution on the basis of a single tooth. Although a tooth provides no information about a living thing's general anatomy, the way that the drawings of Nebraska Man and his family were produced on the basis of a pig's tooth, and the fact that this was portrayed as scientific until the truth was revealed, is a huge logical deficiency and an utter humiliation for Darwinism. But Darwinists have refused to abandon frauds, and are consciously continuing with their Darwinist deceptions.