What was Piltdown man?

Answer 1

Piltdown Man is the common name for one of the most famous scientific hoaxes. The skull and jawbone were found in a gravel pit near Piltdown in Southern England in 1912 and were originally believed to be that of a new species of early man, specifically the "missing link". The fossil was attributed to the new species Eoanthropus dawsonii.

It was not until four decades later, in 1953 the skull was finally shown to be a fake; made from a modern skull and the jawbone of a orang utan carefully broken and aged and placed among the genuine fossils. Fluorine dating in 1949 had first shown the find to be not what it seemed but it was not until 1953 when further analysis confirmed this, and the suggestion was first made that the fossil was the result of intentional deception rather than innocent misinterpretation. The exposure of the hoax resulted in the need for a major overhaul of our accepted views of human history, and it was necessary to literally rewrite the textbooks.

There were various reasons for the long delay before the specimen was identified as a hoax, despite the fact that there were early suspicions among the scientific community. In 1913 claims were made that a further tooth had been discovered at the site, and in 1915 it was claimed more remains were found nearby. This quietened some of the first to express their doubts about the legitimacy of the find. Early enthusiastic support came from the fact the specimen represented exactly what palaeontologists at the time were expecting to find. Dawsonii appeared to have a large brain but still a relatively robust jaw, fitting in with the prevailing belief that increased brain size relative to the body was one of the earliest human developments. No one noticed any flaws in the fossil because the original specimen was kept away from the scientific community, with only casts of the original being made available for study.

One of the saddest aspects of the Piltdown forgery is the fact that it sidelined genuine hominin fossils and affected the careers of those who supported them, pushing species such as Australopithecus africanus out of our family tree. These species only regained their place with the exposure of the Piltdown hoax.

There have been other archaeological fakes through history - particularly of religious artifacts but Piltdown Man is so well known - partly because it was thought to be an early human, and partly because it was so long before it was exposed as fake.

Answer 2

Piltdown Man was a hoax in which fossilized remains, found in England in 1912, were thought to be a missing link in human evolution. It was later revealed to be a forgery, made by combining a human skull with an orangutan jaw, and is not a valid part of the human evolutionary record.