In 1866 Haeckel predicted that a transitional substance would be found on sea floors, to fill the gap between non-living matter and life. So certain was he that he even named it monera ahead of time. Mud was dredged from the sea floor and called Bathybius haeckelii by Huxley, and monera was proclaimed as a fact.
In 1875 chemists from the boat, HMS Challenger, which did the dredging, determined that the substance was actually gypsum - a rock! This fact was not translated into English and made public until 1971 - nearly 100 years later!
http://www.baptistlink.com/godandcountry/html/faker_haeckel.0