Piltdown Hoax

The Piltdown Hoax began when Charles Dawson received a fraction of a scull said to be found at the Piltdown Gravel pit in East Sussex, England in December of 1912. He and Arthur Smith Woodward began to uncover the site but Dawson only found more pieces on his own. The scull found had most pieces including a jaw bone, it seemed to be very similar to a human scull but with several differences, it was thought to be the missing link between humans and apes. This find was accepted easily by the public, and though somewhat questioned by the scientific community, Dawsons respected reputation caused very few, if no one to straight up question it. Therefore it stood, the answer to the question of the missing link. For forty years it stood as the answer, until, after Dawsons death, when others were finally able to see the evidence up close and it was discovered that the find was really a combination of a human scull from the medieval era, the jaw of an orangutang and some fossilized ape teeth, all that had been stained to match, and the teeth had been shaped to fit. In other words, it was a false, a hoax, created to bring fame to Dawsons name, or for the country of England. In this case mans desire for glory or recognition got in the way of true science and set the community forty years back. However what was learned from this hoax is invaluable. It is now widely understood how critical it is to have peer evaluation and feedback, and to not take anything at face value, no matter the name behind it. So even though we can not remove man from the picture, we can lessen the margin for error by checking and rechecking against peer information. Something we can all learn from this scam is to never just swallow what people are telling us, but to research for ourselves. Especially in this era of information overload.