Curious Questions: How did a scrotum joke confuse paleontologists for generations?

One of the earliest depictions of a fossil prompted a joke — or perhaps a misunderstanding — which coloured the view of dinosaur fossils for years. Martin Fone tells the tale of 'scrotum humanum'.

Prehistoric monsters in a lithographic plate from the Flammarion edition of Le Monde Avant le Creation de l'Homme, 1870.

One of the earliest depictions of a fossil prompted a joke — or perhaps a misunderstanding — which coloured the view of dinosaur fossils for years. Martin Fone tells the tale of 'scrotum humanum'.