Images, clips & hoaxes
Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer
hoaxEvidence status
Discover April Fool fiction.
Editorial assessment of this proposition; not a numeric confidence score.
Claim or proposition being examined
Heat-producing burrowing animals melt Antarctic ice and eat penguins.
Limitations
Source demonstrates circulation of the claim, not its truth; independently authenticated evidence is required.
Catalog review date reported: 2026-10-28. This is inherited catalog metadata, not a new verification of the linked source.
A real naked mole-rat eating. Discover’s former editor identified this kind of animal as the basis of the Ice Borer photo hoax. This photograph is not the manipulated 1995 image and does not show an Antarctic animal.
Trisha M. Shears (Ltshears), Naked Mole Rat Eating, 1 March 2007; public-domain dedication; unchanged.
Independent zoological photograph, not the source photograph used by Discover and not an Antarctic sighting. Original composite remains held.
Image source record · Reuse terms
Image rights and evidence limits
Copyright holder explicitly released own work worldwide into the public domain, with an unconditional any-purpose fallback grant.
Image existence does not prove a linked claim. Consult image-specific captions and reuse conditions.
Sources and what they support
Links document the record, the claim’s circulation, an assessment, or reuse terms as labeled. A source link is not automatically corroboration.
- claim documentation and/or assessmenthttps://faculty.mtsac.edu/cbriggs/Biol-1%20Lab%204%20Osmosis%20and%20Surface%20Area%20FA16.pdf
- displayed image provenance; not proof of the associated claimhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Naked_Mole_Rat_Eating.jpg
- image-specific reuse conditionshttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Naked_Mole_Rat_Eating.jpg
- documentary source for this record; not necessarily evidence supporting its claimhttps://faculty.mtsac.edu/cbriggs/Biol-1%20Lab%204%20Osmosis%20and%20Surface%20Area%20FA16.pdf
- documentary source for this record; not necessarily evidence supporting its claimhttps://www.discovermagazine.com/why-are-smart-people-some-of-the-most-gullible-people-around-1311
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