Downfall of the Piltdown Man

1.)        The Piltdown Man was the discovery of the “missing link”, in East Sussex, England. In the early 1900’s a man named Charles Dawson claims the discovery of the Piltdown fragments in a gravel pit; in December of 1912, the official presentation of the fossilized remains of a preciously unknown early human. These fragments consisted of parts of a skull and jawbone. Dawson worked with a man named Arthur Smith Woodward. Woodward was part of the digging team and found skull fragments and jawbone; he announced that the reconstruction of the fragments had indicated the skull was similar to modern man, except for the occiput, which is right on top of the spinal column. He also stated that the brain size was about two-thirds smaller than modern man and the molar teeth in the jawbone were indistinguishable from a chimpanzee. Dawson and Woodward proposed that the Piltdown man was the missing evolutionary link between apes and humans, supporting the notion that in England, human evolution began with the brain. As early as 1913, people in the scientific community were skeptical of the findings and proposed that the remains possibly being a fossilized ape. It wasn’t until 1953 that the Piltdown man was found a hoax. A fluorine content test established the remains were relatively resent.

2.)        Due to the time of the discovery, every country was in a race to make the greatest discovery of their time. With the way this scenario plays out its seems to me that scientific racism clouded the integrity of the scientist involved with the discovery of the Piltdown man. Woodward himself claiming that in England marked the beginning of human brain evolution. The title of his book “The Earliest Englishman”, shows me that it was more important to them that the discovery was made in England by and Englishman for the pride of England, rather than for the true discovery of the missing link

3.)        From its first findings, scientists were skeptical about the Piltdown find. The suspected that this fossil was inconsistent with the path of hominid evolution as demonstrated by fossils found elsewhere. In 1953 Kenneth Page Oakley, Sir Wilfrid Edward Clark and Joseph Weiner published that the fossil was a composite of three distinct species; a medieval aged skull, five- hundred year old orangutan lower jaw and fossilized chimpanzee teeth. When examined, it was concluded that staining the bones with an iron solution and chromic acid had created the appearance of age. When the remains were examined under a microscope it revealed that the bones had file marks, noting that someone had modified the teeth to give them a shape more suited to a human diet. Concluding that the Piltdown man was a forgery.

4.)        Humans, I would say are bias by nature. Only when you remove the urge to make finding that support your own personal views, can real scientific finding take place.

5.)        That this event was a show of bad character in the scientific community. It discredited science in the eyes of many people for a long time, making a false discovery for personal or nation gain is actually working against what the scientific community is trying to do. But scientists natural skepticism prevailed in time the lie to set things straight.