Breaking News: Ancient Centaur Skeleton Discovered, Shedding Light on Mythical Creatures Dating Back to 1980s

The plaque on “The Centaur of Volos,” which was first displayed in 1980 at the Madison Art Center in Wisconsin, reads: “One of three centaur tombs discovered in 1980 by the Archaeological Society of Argos Orestiko, eight kilometers northeast of Volos, Greece.”

The human bones are real, as are the horse bones. But they were spliced together and staged by a guy named Bill Willers. According to forensic science researcher and writer Dolly Stolze of the forensic anthropology website Strange Remains: In 1980, Bill Willers, an artist and professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, constructed the skeletal remains of the Centaur of Volos from real human bones and a Shetland pony. The human bones Willers used were from an anatomical specimen, a human skeleton from India, in his university’s biology department. The human and pony bones were stained with tea to give them a uniform color and to make them look authentic.

“The Centaur of Volos” toured a number of colleges in the 1980s before being purchased by the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1994. It is now on permanent display in the Jack E. Reese Gallery at Hodges Library.

In 2008, Willers was commissioned by Skulls Unlimited – a company that sells real bones, human and otherwise – to create another centaur skeleton, this one pictured:

“The Centaur of Tymfi” was displayed at the Arizona International Wildlife Museum in 2012 as part of a “Mythological Wildlife” exhibit. It was later acquired by The Barnum Museum in Connecticut. (Fun fact: “The Centaur of Tymfi” actually uses zebra bones, not horse bones.)

As to why “The Centaur of Volos” was created and aired, according to Stolze: The exhibit is designed to encourage students to trust their critical thinking skills and not accept everything as fact, no matter how believable it may seem or sound, even if it comes from a reliable source such as a university exhibit.

And according to Roadside America, Willers “conceived the centaur as a way to test the public’s willingness to believe the unbelievable, just as P.T. Barnum did.”

These days, I’m fairly certain I could post the Volos photos on Facebook and have at least five people believe it. And get it circulated.