Johann Beringer

Johann Bartholomeus Adam Beringer was a German physician and professor of medicine at the University of Würzburg who became the victim of a hoax and ended up describing fake fossils, Beringer's Lying Stones, and considered their origins in a book entitled Lithographiae imaginibus Wirceburgensis ducentis published in 1726. He discovered the hoax shortly after and tried to recall all copies of the book and took the hoaxers to court but was not able to regain his reputation. A paleontology journal Beringeria is named after him.