Long ago, an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean was engulfed by the sea, and with it, all its inhabitants. There, the last of the snouters, or Rhinogradentia, a group of animals with large snouts, went extinct. This is what Gerold Steiner told us in his seminal work. But actually, none of this was real, but a giant science prank. Science is not always serious, and the history of science is full of scientists that used some of their time to fool their colleagues. Despite being completely false, the anatomy and lifestyle of the snouters is completely rooted in our understanding of evolution, an exercise known as speculative biology, where imagination and science intersect.
Tag: fictional science
Life on Jupiter: is it possible? The scientific imaginary creatures (II)
It’s 1980. The decade of the 70’s has come to an end, and with it, a time when space travel seemed to be achievable in the near future. Fueled by Apolo’s XI landing in 1969, science fiction had just experienced a sudden rise that had even been promoted to the mainstream media (Star Trek, Star…
