The Piltdown Man

The Piltdown hoax was the biggest hoax in scientific history that we know of. It began when a laborer was digging in ground and came across part of a skull near Piltdown, England and brought it to amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson for further investigation. Dawson thought that the skull was much thicker than a normal human skull and could be very significant in the evolution of humans. He took it to the Natural History Museum of London to show his findings to Arthur Smith Woodward during the winter of 1912.

Up until this point in time, there had been no discoveries of prehistoric man in England. There had been discoveries in Germany, France and Spain, but nothing in Britain. There was a rivalry between Britain and Germany and World War I had just intensified it. As a result, Arthur Smith Woodward posited that this discovery could prove that Britain was the birthplace of the human race so he set out with Dawson back to Piltdown to find more bones to support their theory. Soon other artifacts and bones were found, specifically a jaw with human like teeth and eventually a canine that further supported Dawson and Woodward’s claim of having found the “missing link” in human evolution. Soon the news of the “missing link” has been spread across Europe and to the U.S. The discovery met opposition and weariness almost everywhere it was discussed. The bones of the skull did not match the bones of the jaw and there were missing pieces that would be crucial in determining if the bones even belonged to the same mammal originally. Many scientists from Britain, on the other hand, fully supported the discovery based on the reputation of the man and organization stating that the Piltdown man was real.

For 40 years after the discovery, there was talk of the Piltdown man being a hoax. Then, in 1953 a man by the name of Kenneth Oakley proved it was hoax by performing a chemical test on the bones to determine the age. It appeared that the bones were much younger than originally thought and further testing would reveal that the skull was from a human and the jaw from an ape. It was also discovered that the bones had been filed and stained to obtain the desired appearance that they were from the same mammal and were older than they were. The Piltdown man had been revealed as a carefully orchestrated hoax and embarrassed the scientific community of Britain who stoutly believed in it’s significance. Some scientists had even based their life’s work on the discovery of the Piltdown man and the belief that it was the “missing link.”

Had the Piltdown man been real, it would have proven that men descended directly from apes. That they are our ancestors when in fact, this is not true. Humans and Chimpanzees share a distant ancestor but the evolution of each species has changed greatly over time. Humans and apes have similar lineages but a Chimpanzee did not suddenly transform into a human over the course of hundreds of years. The Piltdown man, the “missing link”, would have created a different understanding of evolution. People would look at it as a straight line (a chain of events that show how each species evolved into another species) instead of looking at evolution as a tree with many branches in which each species may share a common ancestor but evolved separately from those species with which they may share traits.

The Piltdown man hoax was essentially the result of pride, greed, and arrogance, perhaps even blind ambition. Dawson was an amateur archaeologist who gained respect and notoriety within royal circles with each new discovery and Woodward was already a well-respected paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of London. Dawson’s motives might have been greed as the notion of wealth and reputation often appeared to drive his actions. Woodward wanted to bring notoriety to his museum and put Britain on the map as far as important human discoveries were concerned. Britain was constantly competing against Germany and Britain finally something to “prove” that the first man was an Englishman. It is also thought that Woodward was so invested in the idea of the “missing link” that he would have readily believed just about anything that supported his findings. There were also possible other players in the hoax that had different motives like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Martin Hinton. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holms, was also in the equation during the discovery and presentation of the Piltdown man. It is believed that he might have done the forgery as retribution for his waning reputation with England’s high society. In addition to being an author, Doyle was a doctor who believed in mysticism and the existence of spirits and ghosts. Many important figures in English society had started to discredit Doyle because of his beliefs and he felt unfairly attacked. Finally, Martin Hinton was a junior scientist under Woodward at the Natural History Museum and a bit of a joker. He had a rivalry with Woodward and is suspected of being involved with the staining of the bones as a malicious joke to undermine Woodward’s reputation. Again, pride and jealously is the culprit in this scenario.

One of the positive outcomes of the Piltdown man hoax was how it showed the importance of the scientific method. Dawson and Woodward found bones, made assumptions, and communicated it as fact. Oakley used the scientific method to disprove the theory. He tested their hypothesis, analyzed the results and disproved the information that had been communicated earlier. Oakley used a form of relative dating called fluorine analysis to prove the age of the bones. Fluorine analysis measures the amount of fluorine that had been absorbed by the fossils from the groundwater in the area. If the bones were deposited in the area around the same time, they should have contained the same amount of fluorine. Oakley proved that the fluorine levels in the bones were not the same and that the skull was actually significantly older than the jaw bone. The discrepancy in the fluorine contest of the bones led scientists to examine the bones even closer and that is when they determined that the bones had been altered with files and stain to give the appearance that they were the same age and from one mammal instead of two.

Overall, the human factor greatly impacted the information communicated about the Piltdown man. The people involved with the bones were probably too prideful to admit that their findings may have been incorrect. For those thought to be involved in creating the hoax, again their pride and reputation kept them from telling the truth about what had happened. The entire incident had gained too much attention for any of them to risk their reputations and livelihoods to bring the truth to light. On the one hand, It is impossible to remove the human factor from science completely but the scientific method is able to negate many of the problems that may arise from it. By being required to test and prove the hypothesis for it to be considered reliable, many of the issues arising from pride or blind belief are taken out of the equation. On the other hand, I do not believe that the human factor should be removed from the science completely. Without creative people with inquiring minds, who will come up with the questions to be asked? Who will seek out new information or make discoveries? Curiosity is the only reason that we know so much about the world today.

This particular historical event should tell us not to believe everything we hear. Had the discovery gone unquestioned, it is possible that everything we know about evolution today would be wrong. It is very important for people to do their own research and draw their own conclusions about many things. Even certain scientific studies today are too heavily influenced by the people funding them and often produce skewed results. I would not know the first thing about trying to disprove a study about whether or not vaccines cause autism for example, however this idea can be applied to much in our modern everyday lives. Every time I turn on the news there is misinformation and the same applies to social media like Facebook, twitter, tumbler etc. Never take anything at face value. Approach everything critically so that you can do your own research and form your own conclusions.