'I think it would have been long forgotten if Michael Crichton hadn't used it to have a go at scientists.'

Maybe. But in the biology book I learned from, and the teacher at that time, the text (in the arly 1960s) used that info.

However, granted when you said that science tends to correct its mistakes once they find them. But I still don't trust either religions or science. Too many vested interests--in both.