page_title: Calaveras Skull
hierarchical_section_title: Calaveras Skull
caption_attribution_description: English: Drawing of the Calaveras Skull, an archaeological hoax that geologist Josiah Whitney believed to prove that humans had existed in the Pliocene age.
context_page_description: The Calaveras Skull was a human skull found by miners in Calaveras County, California, which was purported to prove that humans, mastodons, and elephants had coexisted in California. It was later revealed to be a hoax. Coincidentally, "calaveras" is the Spanish word for "skulls".
context_section_description: The Calaveras Skull was a human skull found by miners in Calaveras County, California, which was purported to prove that humans, mastodons, and elephants had coexisted in California. It was later revealed to be a hoax. Coincidentally, "calaveras" is the Spanish word for "skulls".
caption: The Calaveras Skull, from William Henry Holmes' preliminary debunking of it
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2014:02:25 20:37:24", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8760", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "503", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "539"}