‘Fossil Fraud’ Evolutionary theory’s 40 year setback
by Ben Edwards
“No theory of human evolution can be regarded as satisfactory unless the
revelations of Piltdown are taken into account.” Written by Sir Arthur
Keith, England’s leading anatomist, in a foreword for Arthur Smith
Woodward’s 1948 book The Earliest Englishman, it was an uninhibited
endorsement. The Piltdown Man discoveries in Sussex from 1912 to 1915
represented a significant milestone in human evolution.
Four decades later, in 1953, The Times in London ran the headline PILTDOWN MAN FORGERY. JAW AND TOOTH OF MODERN APE / ELABORATE HOAX.
March 2004 marked the beginning of the end of my undergraduate studies. By the end of this year, I should be a qualified biologist. That’s right, this little black duck (Anas superciliosa) will be free to unleash the fury of neo-Darwinian theory on an unsuspecting science community. One theory remaining to be examined in my final year is that of the evolutionary ‘missing link’ between apes and humans. A complete examination of ‘missing link’ theory cannot overlook the Piltdown Man Fraud.
The story of Piltdown Man plays out like a modern day trilogy. Part I of this epic takes us to the small village of Piltdown in Sussex, England, in the year 1912. Here, nominee for ‘Best Actor in a Scientific Fraud’ Charles Dawson – lawyer, amateur geologist and antiquarian – ‘unearthed’ fossilised fragments of ‘human’ skull from a pit in Piltdown.
Later in 1912 Dawson and his friend, Arthur Smith Woodward (nominee for ‘Best Supporting Paleontologist in a Scientific Fraud’) unearthed a fragment of ‘ape-like’ jawbone in the Piltdown pit. Woodward hypothesised that the ‘human-like’ skull fragments and ‘ape-like’ jawbone belonged to the same individual, ‘Piltdown Man’. A reasonable hypothesis for the time, as even Charles Darwin had hypothesised such an ape-human hybrid. Testing to date the fossils indicated that Piltdown Man roamed England between one million and half a million years before the discovery.
Piltdown II, unlike many modern-day sequels, improved upon Piltdown I. In 1915, among growing scepticism about Piltdown Man, as if scripted like clues from a Sherlock Holmes mystery, Dawson discovered new cranial bones and a molar tooth, apparently two miles from Piltdown I. On the strength of Piltdown II, Piltdown Man with its large ‘human-like’ brain and ‘ape-like’ jaw was heralded as the earliest evolutionary ‘missing link’ between apes and humans, The Earliest Englishman.
Charles Darwin’s 19th Century hypothesis that Africa was the ‘Cradle of Humanity’ diminished in stature under the weight of Piltdown. Even the discovery of a fossilised half-ape, half-human, child’s skull in South Africa in 1924 by Australian Professor Raymond Dart failed to significantly alter scientific opinion about the European origins of man.
1953 yielded the final installment of the Piltdown trilogy. Part III, ‘The Fraud Uncovered’, is best known for Joseph Weiner and Kenneth Oakley’s nominations for ‘Best Party Pooper in a Drama or Hoax’ for their role in exposing the Piltdown Man fraud.
Together Weiner and Oakley, long time sceptics of the Piltdown discoveries, revealed not only had Piltdown Man’s molar teeth been artificially abraded but that a “paint-like substance” was used to artificially stain the fossils. Fluorine testing revealed that the Piltdown jaw and teeth were modern! The Piltdown Man was proven beyond doubt as an eloborate hoax! Despite this, and even though Dawson has been heavily implicated, the volumes of text dedicated to Piltdown Man have not been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he was the perpetrator of the hoax.
With the benefit of hindsight we now know that Woodward and Keith had erred in their judgement about Piltdown Man. However, the Piltdown Man Hoax is a good reminder at the start of the academic year that the theories studied and applied across many disciplines do not represent definitive answers. They do however, represent the basis for further investigation.