# Aedoeocephalus: real or a hoax?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aedoeocephalus-real-or-a-hoax/331285
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 16, 2005, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aedoeocephalus-real-or-a-hoax/331285 "2005-11-16T07:43:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2005, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aedoeocephalus-real-or-a-hoax/331285/1 "2005-11-16T07:43:03Z")
I was flipping through my _Dorland’s Medical Dictionary_, 30th ed., the other night, when I came across the following amazing entry:
**aedoeocephalus** (Gk _aidoios_ genitals + _cephalus_) a fetus with no mouth, a nose like a penis, and but one orbit.
Googling turns up nothing but references to Dorland’s. Could this be a [Nihilartikel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilartikel) - i.e. a hoax?
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### Author:  [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2005, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aedoeocephalus-real-or-a-hoax/331285/2 "2005-11-16T08:20:08Z")
Although I’m not familiar with the term _aedoeocephalus_, the types of malformations you’ve described are (unfortunately) all too real and more common than one might expect.
You’re most likely to find relevant sites by using “holoprosencephaly” as one of your search terms.
[Here is a link\*](http://zygote.swarthmore.edu/ecto3.html) which shows the spectrum of the malformation and, specifically, depicts a fetus with a single orbit and a nose which is, I suppose, penis-like.
\*WARNING: GRAPHIC PICTURES