A North Carolina man made international news last year when he claimed to have seen a Bigfoot, and it appears a Wilmington man is poised to do the same with claims he found a pixie skeleton.
Or so the internet would have you believe.
Realistic looking photos of a tiny skeleton in the palm of someone’s hand are being heavily debated on Facebook this week, including claims that “scientific tests have concluded the bones are indeed real.”
Historical Pictures and Beyond the Science both posted the photos, explaining “James Cornan of Wilmington, North Carolina, claims to have discovered the remains of a pixie in a falcon’s nest while exploring the Rocky Mountains in 2017.” Pixies are mythical creatures that resemble tiny humans, with pointed ears and mischievous habits.
The posts have drawn thousands of shares and hundreds of comments, including one person claiming the skeleton is a marmoset.
Fact is, it’s a fake story.
The same photos appeared more than a year ago on the website of Dan Baines of the United Kingdom, who is linked to one of the most popular hoaxes of the past 20 years, involving a “mummified fairy corpse.”
Baines’ website featured a story on the alleged pixie skeleton in February 2017, asking: “Could these shocking images finally be proof of the existence of pixies and fairies?”
He credits the photos to a “mysterious man” who works for a birds of prey rescue center in Cornwall, not a North Carolina man. “During a routine check, he climbed a tall tree to inspect the nest when something amongst the twigs and feathers caught his eye,” according to Baines’ website.
In the 12 months since that story was posted, the photos have morphed into a discovery made by the fictitious James Cornan of Wilmington, N.C.
Social media was continuing to hotly debate the authenticity of the photos this week. Among the Facebook commenters is Courtland Marsh of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, who sums up the situation with a request.
“I just found some wonderful beachfront property here in Nebraska that I’d like Mr. Cornan to help me sell to the same people he sold this (skeleton) to,” she posted. “Scientific studies have confirmed it to be a real beach.”