Piltdown Man

The Piltdown hoax occurred in the early 1900s in Sussex, England. Charles Dawson and Sir Arthur Smith Woodward had found a seemingly important collection of fossils that appeared to be real physical evidence that humans and apes were related by a common ancestor. The most telling piece of evidence that they found was the ape-like jawbone structure that contained human-like molars. The find also appeared to be definitive proof that the origins of modern humans did not begin in Africa but in England because the fossils were assumed to predate all other recorded early human fossils at the time, misleading scientists for many years about the origins of human evolution. The find was not exposed as a hoax until over 40 years later when newer findings conflicted with the Piltdown man and newer technology actually dated the fossils appropriately, and then it was finally realized that the fossils were in fact orangutan remains, made to look like prehistoric fossils.

Greed and ambition were likely the reasons that drove the masterminds of this hoax in order to earn more prestige and honor as scientists. There was also a kind of pressure on Britain to find early human remains since other European countries had already found many early man fossils in their own countries. At the time, Britain had not had any early human fossils to compete with those from Germany, France and Spain, but when Piltdown man was discovered Britain was finally able to claim their land as the birthplace of the entire human race. The greed and ambition of these lesser scientists led to a hoax that only misled the scientific community for multiple decades and validated ideas that were later proven to be incorrect. But the Piltdown man hoax was an event that taught the scientific community a lesson and forced scientists to become less vulnerable in accepting false evidence as truth.

As technologies evolved, scientists were eventually able to test the artifacts to figure out their age. It would not have been impossible to figure out much sooner that it was hoax if only its discoverers would have looked more closely and realized that the coloration of the fossils was unnatural and that the teeth had been deliberately filed down to look like human molars. As obvious as the hoax appears in hindsight, further tests were eventually made in which the fluoride levels in the teeth were measured, roughly estimating that the fossils were actually much younger than they were first claimed to be. Over time the Piltdown man fossils did not fit in with any of the other findings that were being discovered around the world, and it eventually conflicted so much that its invalidity would have been impossible to ignore forever.

It is probably not possible to remove the human factor from science since it is exactly that which drives us to become scientists in the first place. You simply cannot teach curiosity to a robot. We just have to accept the fact that there will always be those who try to lie and cheat their way to the top but if we just follow the scientific method and remain skeptical of everything, the truth will eventually become apparent.

I learned that competition between countries is the same as competition between two people. It is a primitive quality that belongs outside of science and that we must learn to shake if we want to ever learn to work together to find solutions to life’s greatest question: where do we come from? It is an honest question that begs an honest answer. We must strive to be as objective and thorough as possible when it comes to studying evidence and not take anything at face value. As a scientist, I would only be humiliating myself if I worked sloppily and if I allowed my selfish interests to keep me from being an objective observer.