The Piltdown Hoax

The Piltdown hoax was an evolutionary hoax which began in the early 1900's. The Piltdown hoax all began in 1912 with and amateur archaeologist named Charles Dawson who had claimed to have found ancient human skulls while digging in Piltdown in Southern New England. The progression of the false evolutionary find continued when Dawson Invites Paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward, and French paleontologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The three, following the claim of finding evidence, which would gain these paleontologist’s scientific prestige, kept these fossils locked and isolated within the hands of Chris Stringer, the head of the natural history museum in London. The significance behind this fossil find was that it would have been one of the first ancient, possibly the most ancient, forms of evidence of evolution and similarities between apes and humans. This to England at the time was also very appealing to the public because it would have been the first proof of evolutionary human descent in England. What was interesting, or rather claimed to be interesting about the find, was the shape of the skull which was one that was similar to an ape, while the teeth were that of the human. However, an interesting fact was that Arthur Woodward’s specialty was not in the study of human evolution but that of the fish. Arthur Woodward promoted this idea because it supported his scientific claim that humans develop large brains before walking upright, which was concluded to be incorrect today. Because this studies lack of publicity, exposure, and overall being kept nearly in a secretively manner, this was a large contribution to the lack of expressed inquires regarding the study. Many people were afraid to question these men , the idea of it being in England was appealing to the community, and there was not enough medial exposure in general to allow for questions, refutes, and improvements in finding and resolving correct inconsistencies. The falling point of the Piltdown theory began during World War II with the use of fluorine tests which revealed many interesting things regarding these so called “evolutionary findings.” During this time in the 20's, what really set the standard for questioning Piltdown was the discovery of bones that were found hundreds of thousands of years after the Piltdown man, with the difference being the skull in a less human form. Then in 1953 the first full scaled analyses had been performed on the fossil findings. The results shockingly revealed that the teeth and parts of the face had been filed, or in some way tampered with extremely. Additionally, the bones that were found were in fact less than 100 years old and that of an orangutan. Scientists concluded that all of these men had one sort of a connection or another in the act of this hoax. Dawson began the study, however, Woodward also had a strong motive, to prove his theory, and although later the volunteer who worked with Woodward was found with the exactly same stained types of fossils, his motive was weak, however may have taken the initiative to investigate the accuracy of what was going on. In my opinion I believe they each played a role of greed for academic and scientific prestige. These findings, tampering’s, and fraudulent claims put many scientists down in the field and many scientists feel that bad experts have destroyed the good experts credibility.

            I believe that as ambitious men who desired to hold a certain position in society, who are non-patient, and focus their genius and abilities to manipulate others is a large characteristic all these men play. The issues that came into play mostly was derived from greed, greed of fame and honor that frankly wasn't earned, and in the end destroyed their credibility as a whole while disappointing many people. Additionally, when bad research spreads it can affect a large population of people in multifarious negative ways. Additionally, because of the lack of publication, many people did not get the opportunity to ask questions or give feedback, leaving these scientists and the entire community believing in false information, thus delaying the process of evolutionary discovery furthermore, in addition to creating many skeptics of evolution in the process.

            The positive aspects in the revelation of the skull were the fluorine tests and the discoveries of different skulls, accompanied by scientists who stepped up and acted assertively in their search for the truth. The comparison of the bones found in the 20’s, contradicted the structural skull bones of the human in the Piltdown theory. Then in the 1950's new technology was discovered which allowed for a full fledged analysis on the teeth showing that the bones have in fact been tampered with.

            I’m sure it is possible and we have ways of doing so, similar to technology we use to discover outer space or in the ocean. However, all we try to do is find new and efficient ways to get REAL people on space or in the ocean because, contrary to popular belief, we are much smarter than robots. I would not like to see robots take full charge of discoveries like this, it is much more meaningful for humans to learn about ourselves by taking initiative personally. Yes, using technology in accordance with human action is something that is important and led to these new discoveries, but I do not believe, for these reasons, that robots would do a more thorough job. Machines make mistake which may alter research as well.