Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer
The April 1995 issue of Discover Magazine contained a brief article (in its “Breakthroughs” section) about the hotheaded naked ice borer, a fascinating new Antarctic species recently found by wildlife biologist Dr. Aprile Pazzo.
These bizarre creatures were each about half a foot long, very light, and had a bony plate attached to their head that could become burning hot, allowing them to bore tunnels through ice at high speeds. They used this ability to hunt penguins. Packs of them would melt the ice beneath a penguin causing it to sink into the slush, at which point the borers would surround the hapless creature and consume it.
Dr. Pazzo, the article explained, discovered the borers by chance as a result of their predatory nature. While studying a group of penguins, she noticed one frightened member of the group rapidly sinking into the ice. When she pulled the hapless creature out of the fast-growing slush pool, she found a host of small creatures attached to it. These creatures turned out to be Hotheaded Ice Borers.
After researching this fascinating new species, Dr. Pazzo theorized that the hotheads might have been responsible for the mysterious disappearance of the Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837. “To the ice borers, he would have looked like a penguin,“ the article quoted her as saying.
Discover received more mail in response to this article than it had ever received for any other article.
Needless to say, the Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer was fictitious. The article was an April Fool’s Day joke. Discover often includes a hoax article in its April issue in honor of the day.
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