The Piltdown Man - The Biggest Scientific Hoax in History

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It was December 18, 1912, and a very exciting meeting was about to take place in London that would soon send the world into a frenzy. Before the Geological Society stood two men - amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson and paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward, curator of the Geology Department of the Museum of Natural History. The duo had something quite captivating to present to the scientific community - the reconstruction of a skull believed to have belonged to a human ancestor from 500,000 years ago.

It was named Eoanthropus dawsoni after its discoverer, but most people referred to it by its other name - Piltdown Man. Soon enough, newspapers worldwide heralded it as the much sought-after “missing link” - an ancient ancestor whose existence had been theorized for decades, ever since Charles Darwin made evolution the hot topic of the natural sciences. The British media, in particular, was enthralled with the discovery and proudly labeled Piltdown Man as the “Earliest Englishman.”

Both the scientific community and the public at large accepted Piltdown Man as what they perceived it to be - a crucial discovery and a pivotal moment in the study of life on Earth. There was just one problem, though, and spoiler alert here - Piltdown Man was one of the greatest hoaxes the world had ever seen.

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Further Reading:

John Evangelist Walsh - Unraveling Piltdown

Frank Spencer - Piltdown