8 Seriously Bizarre Scientific Theories From History

7. Barnacle Geese Are Fruiting Fish

So those Medieval dudes had some weird ideas about creatures from distant lands, but they were seemingly just as confused by some decidedly more local creatures.

Basically, back in the day when the God man was a bigger part of people's lives, it was recommended that you fasted for at least some part of the week to show how super up for the whole Christianity thing you were. This basically meant that for a few days, you couldn't eat anything "of the flesh".

Peasants didn't have much trouble with this as they mainly ate grains, but if you were an aristocrat or a fat monk, this sounded like a good way to ruin your weekend.

So, to combat this, they decided that fish "didn't count" as meat and that barnacle geese were classed as fish because they grew on trees and fell off into a river in lieu of being born or laying eggs.

Seeing as the geese were common enough to end up on the dinner plates of friars, you'd think that someone would have noticed that this is obviously bulldust. Apparently not, however, as one record even asserts that he had "frequently seen, with own eyes, more than a thousand of these small bodies of birds, hanging down on the sea-shore from one piece of timber".

Unsurprisingly, Pope Innocent III eventually caught on and told everyone that, no, you were not allowed to eat geese when fasting because come the f**kon (direct quote).