This morning, during my daily graze of news and commentary, I’ve come across some fairly excellent science-themed April Fool’s jokes. But it will take an exceptional hoax to mount a serious challenge to what is arguably the finest science-themed April Fool’s joke of all time, which today celebrates its fifteenth anniversary: the tale of the hotheaded naked ice borer.

Then-Discover-senior-editor, now-contributing-editor, and forever-all-around-good-guy Tim Folger concocted an article detailing the mystery of penguins vanishing from sight, and the discovery of a thermally endowed rodent that melted the ice under their feet and dragged them into their frozen tunnels.

Despite naming the scientist April Pazzo (I mean, come on, people), Tim fooled many a reader, as reflected in the flood of