“If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the theory.” —Albert Einstein

Mammoth (left) Gomphothere (right)

Facts can be so simple. 250,000 years ago a mammoth died in Mexico.  While the bones were still green, someone carved a gomphothere into the pelvis bone of the mammoth.  A gomphothere is a four-tusked extinct elephant.  Another carving in the bone illustrated a speared cat.  It was all very exciting.  The Smithsonian featured it and LIFE Magazine did an article on the find with the expectation that the carving dated to 30,000 BC.

From the same site in the late 1800s a skull was found that had attributes of brow ridges.  A German carried the skull to Leipzig where it was featured in a museum until it was lost in World War II bombing.  The skull did contain diatoms from having been submerged for some time.  The diatoms were classified as antediluvian.  Sam VanLandingham dated a reference scraping of the diatoms and dated the diatoms at 80,000 to 220,000 years ago.  Diatoms found at the Valsequillo site are consistent with those of the scraping.

The mammoth bone was tested sometime after the LIFE Magazine article and Smithsonian feature.  The carved mammoth bone dated to 250,000 BC.  Suddenly the find was viewed as a hoax, because of the belief that people weren’t supposed to be in the Americas in 250,000 BC.  The people who were studying the site were accused of fraud, though fraud was unproven.

In a different scientific field, Albert Einstein stated the solution simplistically:  “If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the theory.”  Unfortunately, this scientific principle was ignored regarding Valsequillo.  Even today people choose to believe that no people were in the Americas in 250,000 BC.  Imagine how exciting it would be to be free to follow the facts.  Imagine the finds there might be if the theory changed and people could search for the potential of people throughout the Americas as far back as 250,000 years ago or longer.  To follow the facts without fear of ridicule or accusation of fraud.  To me that’s what science is.