Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer

I remember very clearly my sixth grade science teacher reading to us an article in Discover Magazine that excitedly discussed a new species of rodent discovered in the Arctic (pictured). It could heat the bizarre bulb on it's head to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing it to burrow into thick layers of ice. They would create a soupy quicksand of ice and water, into which prey would fall, only to be consumed by dozens of these hungry creatures waiting hungrily below. It speculated that a famous explorer who mysteriously disappeared in 1837 had fallen victim to these unusual creatures.

Well, this blew us all away. After some further research, however, our science teacher realized that the entire thing was a hoax. She in fact stumbled on an article about it in a different magazine, which detailed how zoo curators and biologists wrote into Discover Magazine to try to obtain a specimen. In fact, Discover Magazine received more mail about this article than anything else in its history. They never published a story to let everyone know that it had been a hoax. And that explorer who may have been eaten by Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers? He never existed.

My teacher, naturally, did not want to admit that she had been fooled. But she couldn't let all her students go around thinking there was such thing as a hotheaded naked ice borer that could heat its head to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

I don't think I've ever seen someone so angry as when she stood in front of our class and admitted that it was a hoax. Miss Bares, if you're out there reading this, that was some funny ass shit.