Piltdown Hoax

In a Southern English town called Piltdown, was a man named Charles Dawson. He was an local archaeologist. A fragment of a skull was found while digging one day and was given to Dawson. It looked as if it could have been one of the oldest remains showing evolution from Apes to Humans. It was similar to the cranium of a human but the jaw was similar to an ape. Dawson had Arthur Smith Woodward come out to help him with this discovery. He was England's leading geologist of the Natural History Museum. He also had a French paleontologist named Father Pierre Teihard De Chardin by his side. The 3 men, referred to as the trio, went back to the discovery site and continued to look for more fossils. The last piece that Dawson discovered was the last piece ever found at the site. It happened to be a piece of a jawbone with human-like teeth. The jaw resembled that of an apes. There were fragments broken off but it was thought to have been small chips off at the time. The fragments all seemed to go together when the fossil was carefully put back together. At this time, there was no way to test the fossil for a time frame or any of the technology later used in the Piltdown Man hoax. Dawson was the one to write about the findings of the human skull that would show that that the Germans' ape man was not the earliest human fossil. This discovery put that the earliest human remains were that of a British man.

Finally, in 1949, a fluorine test was used on the fossils and showed that they were about 100,000 years old. This was astonishing and could not be possible. It was later discovered that the jawbone was that of a female Orangutan. The top part of the jaw bone was carefully broken off so that it fit into the human skull. The teeth were filled down to look like human teeth. They also died the remains. When all of these discoveries came about, Dawson had already passed away. It wasn't thought that Woodward was part of the hoax because he continued to search for years upon years after Dawson died for more remains. He was either blindsided by this hoax or playing it off for about 12 years. Father Chardin was very quite when the discoveries of the hoax came about.

Scientists are curious, creative and persistent by nature. It plays into there devotion for what they do. Everyone carries human faults. In the Piltdown Hoax, you had people wanting to be known as famous archaeologists. He or they, whoever was at fault, wanted to be known. They had so much pride in their work, that they thought this would get them recognized for other things as well as the biggest finding for that time period. The findings of this hoax eventually negatively affected all that were involved. We do not know who was lieing and forging things and who knew nothing about the hoax. This hoax had scientists studying wrongful knowledge for a very long time and it also makes people skeptical of what is the truth or not. 

Scientist had been skeptical from the first finding of the Piltdown mans remains. They never voiced their concerns until later on. After WWII, there was now a way for them to test the remains and see about how old they were. The fluorine test performed on the fossil in 1949 showed that they were found to be much younger than thought. The remains were also tested for levels of nitrogen. They eventually found out that the remains had been stained to look older than they were also. They could see under a microscope that the teeth had deep file marks still apparent on them. Science progressing and moving forward was what made it possible to test the Piltdown remains and show that it was a hoax.

I do not think it is possible to remove or reduce the "human" factor when it comes to science. Nor do I think that it should be removed. Scientists and archaeologists do what they do because they love it. They are intrigued by new discoveries and findings and want to know more about life before us. With such a big hoax putting such a huge damper on science, I feel that most know that they can not put anything out their that would jeopardize science any further. Their name is also at jeopardy too. Scientific testing and methods today had come such a far way from the past and it would be much harder for anyone to perform such a hoax again. I think it is basically impossible. Everything is tested out to prove its legitimacy and not much can get by that. Any mistakes one were to make would be fixed or re-evaluated.

I think that you cannot take any information from any source without doing your research and background check on the source. You have to make sure the information you are getting is legitimate and true. I also think that you can learn from this that a lie will usually always get out. Dawson lived his whole life as a liar and he had to deal with that everyday. He took that lie with him to his grave and now has a bad rap to go along with his name. He may have been looked at as someone important during his days, but now he is viewed as a man part of the biggest hoax in science history. I think you always need to look into things for yourself and make an informative decision before making any choices. I feel like this goes for science and evolution all around.