Piltdown Hoax

The Piltdown hoax  started in the early 1900's when a laborer digging at Barkham Manor near the village of Piltdown discovered what appeared to be a piece of a human skull. He reported his findings to Charles Dawson and he went on and dug the area himself and eventually found more fragments of the skull. He took his findings to London's Natural History Museum where he met up with Arthur Smith Woodward. Arthur then accompanied Charles to the site where he found the fragments in the summer of 1912 and ended up finding primitive tools, and fossils. Arthur believed all the fossils and skull fragments they found were from the same species so he was able to reconstruct it. The reconstruction indicated a bigger skull meaning a bigger brain in this new found species. On December 8th, 1912 at a Geological Society Meeting the world was introduced to the Piltdown man scientifically named Eoanthropus Dawsoni. It was a big deal because at the time little was known of the species and the general connections of early apes and humans. Great Britain was also trying to make their mark and show the rest of the world they are not only a force to be reckoned with but the birthplace of life/humans and luckily the discovery of the Piltdown man helped them do that. Although there was much speculation from around the world from experts arguing that the findings were separate human and ape fossils mixed together. However further findings from Dawson & Woodward in 1913 at Piltdown and then in 1915 at a site near the original site of piltdown that they found more bones, even naming it Piltdown man II.These findings and the backing of the Natural History Museum helped silence doubters and critics for more than 40 years.

The piltdown man hoax was discovered in the 1950's but clues leading to the discovery of the hoax began in 1949 after WWII, when new technology helped date fossils more accurately. In 1949 they began to measure the fluorine content of fossils scientists could get a better date on the fossils. When the piltdown man fossils were given a fluorine test the results showed the fossils were only one hundred thousand years old, instead of the millions of years old it would expected to be given the location where it was found. But it was in 1953 when a full series of scientific tests were conducted on the piltdown fossils, which lead to the exposure of the hoax. The testing showed that staining on the bones was superficial, that some of the engraves in the bones were craved with a steel knife after it was fossilized, and the more noticeable find was the teeth using a microscope they discovered that they teeth were filed down to make them look similar to the ware of human teeth. And the jaw bone found was dated less than 100 years old and came from a female orangutan.  The discovery of the hoax put the scientific community into shock; they couldn't understand why anyone would create fake fossils. Arthur Woodward kept digging in piltdown for decades after Dawson died.

Fluorine analysis was ultimately responsible for exposing the hoax because it showed that the findings and fragments didn't have the adequate amount of fluorine in them to be as old as they were supposed to be. X-ray analysis was able to prove that the finding of the jawbone was from a orangutan.Microscopic examination of the teeth found revealed file-marks on them that showed someone had modified and/or filed the teeth to make them look like those of a human.

I do not think it is possible to remove human factors from science because it is humans themselves who do the discoveries. The same factors that can cause errors or mistakes have been the same reasons for some remarkable discoveries in the science community. They can definitely be reduced; however, they're naturally occurring things. Of course you want to eliminate or reduce any chance of error when doing a study but it is human factors that help gather crucial information. I wouldn't want to remove the human factors from science because you got to take the good with the bad and without human factors in science there would not be as many discoveries.

The lesson I took from this historical event was that inaccurate information that is not properly verified by multiple sources can create ignorance of knowledge, even potentially mess up our entire knowledge of our species existence on this planet. It’s important to be thorough in your study and in cross examining your data because wrong information is dangerous to everyone.