diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index dda73b2..736fe7a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+* Remove sniffing from one of the DOM tests, which produced failures in IE8 (kangax)
+
 * Fix `Form.reset` test where `respondsTo` wouldn't detect a method due to typeof returning "object" (rather than "function") in IE (kangax)
 
 * Remove Array#reduce which currently overrides native `reduce` in clients implementing JS1.8, e.g. Firefox 3+ (Tobie Langel, Andrew Dupont, kangax)
diff --git a/test/unit/dom_test.js b/test/unit/dom_test.js
index 3b6cd57..b38f748 100644
--- a/test/unit/dom_test.js
+++ b/test/unit/dom_test.js
@@ -73,7 +73,15 @@ new Test.Unit.Runner({
     
     this.assertElementsMatch(document.getElementsByClassName('A'), 'p.A', 'ul#class_names_ul.A', 'li.A.C');
     
-    if (Prototype.Browser.IE)
+    
+    var isElementPrototypeSupported = (function(){
+      var el = document.createElement('div');
+      var result = typeof el.show != 'undefined';
+      el = null;
+      return result;
+    })();
+    
+    if (!isElementPrototypeSupported)
       this.assertUndefined(document.getElementById('unextended').show);
     
     this.assertElementsMatch(div.getElementsByClassName('B'), 'ul#class_names_ul.A.B', 'div.B.C.D');
@@ -95,7 +103,8 @@ new Test.Unit.Runner({
     this.assertElementsMatch(list.getElementsByClassName({}));
     
     // those lookups shouldn't have extended all nodes in document
-    if (Prototype.Browser.IE) this.assertUndefined(document.getElementById('unextended')['show']);
+    if (!isElementPrototypeSupported) 
+      this.assertUndefined(document.getElementById('unextended')['show']);
   },
 
   testElementInsertWithHTML: function() {