The theory that man came from trees. As in we are created from trees, not that our ancestors were swinging through trees.
This theory first popped up in the 1840's, and disappeared pretty quickly. I just wanted to bring it up because it's worth a good laugh and I love trying to imagine both how they came to this conclusion, and what people like us descended from trees would be (nymphs, ents, dryads, etc mostly).
The easiest explanation I have for how this study came about is that some creation stories suggest that trees were important to the creation of humans. I'm not sure if they include the Garden of Eden as one of the trees humans owe life to, and I'm not sure exactly who has stories of us coming from trees like this, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't a culture that suggested that we're born of trees.
Normally I'd assume that this is a crackpot theory that never got any traction, but the fact that it's a word that is recognized by a few dictionaries suggests that it had more than a single scientist working on it, or that they were very loud about their chosen theory and the field they created for themselves.
Either way, I hope you got a laugh out of this.
Sources/Proof I'm not making this up:
The Free Dictionary--Dendranthropology
Oxford English Dictionary--Dendrantopology
English Encyclopedia--Dendranthrology
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