was a Japanese amateur paleontologist. In his late 70s, he claimed to have discovered

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s from the

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 23.5 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the third and shortest period of t ...

geological period of miniature animals, ranging from dinosaurs to humans, accounting for more than 1000 allegedly extinct "mini-species", each less than 0.25mm in length.Okamura, C., 1980. ''Period of the Far Eastern minicreatures''. ''Original Report of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory'', 14: 165-346.Okamura, C., 1987. ''New facts: homo and all vertebrata were born simultaneously in the Former Paleozoic in Japan''. ''Original Report of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory'', 15, pp.347-573. He claimed that "There have been no changes in the bodies of mankind since the Silurian period... except for a growth in stature from 3.5 mm to 1,700 mm." In the 1970s, he visited Japan's paleontology conference several times and applied to present his findings. It was rumored that in 1978 an elderly paleontologist who walked into Okamura's lecture became so angry that he suffered from high blood pressure and died prematurely. Eventually the paleontology conference changed its rules to ban amateurs and Okamura petitioned overseas colleges, finally publishing his research himself in 1983. He was awarded the

Ig Nobel Prize The Ig Nobel Prize () is a satirical prize awarded annually since 1991 to promote public engagement with scientific research. Its aim is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The name of the award is a ...

for his work in 1996.

References

* * * Japanese paleontologists Year of death missing 1901 births Ig Nobel laureates Scientists from Aichi Prefecture {{paleontologist-stub