Piltdown Hoax

Piltdown Hoax

Introduction of Piltdown Hoax

The story of the Piltdown Man can be traced to 1907 when a miner discovered the jaws of Heidelberg in Germany. The discovery immediately heightened tensions of the complex international relationships that have been already intense. Moreover, this discovery helped to ignite a sense of inferiority among British naturalists. In 1912 Charles Dawson, an English lawyer and amateur fossil hunter told his friend Arthur Smith Woodward that he had found something "interesting" in Piltdown's gravel beds.

In the first excavation, Smith Woodward and Dawson discovered several fossils resembling human skulls, mandibles resembling apes, teeth, stoneware, and animal fossils. Two years later, they found fossil canines between the size of human teeth and those of apes. Based on the color of these bones and the surrounding animal fossils, they inferred that the newly discovered "human" lived about 500,000 years ago and named it Piltdown. This has caused a great sensation within British evolutionary circles. This discovery has advanced evolutionary research for decades and confirmed that Britain is an important place for human evolution.

However, scientists at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom used the new technology of the fluorocarbon dating to expose the hoax: the skull and jaw were not from the same period. Further research revealed that Piltdown's skull had been artificially dyed and carved. Obviously, the cheaters were several people involved in the excavation work at the time: Dawson, Smith Woodward, French priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and volunteer Martin Hinton.

The direct cause of the Piltdown Hoax-the weaknesses of the humanity

The final identification and the determination of real cheaters within the Piltdown Hoax has not yet been made, while Dawson is still the first suspect. He had access to a variety of fossils, and he had enough anatomical and chemical knowledge to fabricate and stain the bones found in Piltdown. Dawson has a history of counterfeiting. Many of his famous discoveries were later proved false. More specifically, in 1970, in the warehouse of the Natural History Museum in London, a box of animal bones and polished teeth, as well as some toners, were found. According to the file, this box is related to the Piltdown man of the year. Subsequently, Dawson's research showed that at least 38 of his many findings were false.

He used to be extremely eager to be recognized by the British scientific community. Some relevant letters indicated that he tried to join the Royal Society but eventually failed. Dawson was the only profitable person in the entire scam. No further discoveries were made after his death. He didn't need the money, but the Piltdown Hoax brought him something more valuable - fame.

During the big debate, Doyle stood firmly on the side of Dawson. The influence of best-selling authors on the general public has often surpassed scientists. The Piltdown Hoax greatly influenced the early research of human evolutionary history, introduced scientists to a dead end, and consumed a lot of human and financial resources in the scientific community.

The scientific tools, process, and methodologies to reveal the Piltdown Hoax

In revealing the Piltdown Hoax, multiple scientists have adopted various scientific tools, process, as well as methodologies. More specifically, some of the earliest to question the Piltdown Man was the paleontologist and anatomist of the Smithsonian Society in the United States. It was not until 1949 that Dr. Kenneth Oklay, a young geologist at the British Museum, was allowed to take tiny samples of the bones and date them in new forms of analysis. Precisely, the bone buried in the ground absorbed the fluoride in the water, and the absorption of the oxide in the bone could show the length of time buried in the ground. Dr. Oakley's tests showed that the skull and jawbone were only 50, 000 years old.

Moreover, it was Dr. Weiner, an anthropologist at the University of Oxford, who was acting on these doubts. He tried to enumerate the factors proving that there were no Piltdown Man: a thick human skull and human teeth on a humanoid bone, which was as if it has flattened with a sickle.

Weiner flattened and dyed a chimpanzee's teeth, the result of which was the same as the Piltdown's teeth. In 1953, Dr. Oakley assisted him in further testing the broken bones unearthed in Piltdown. The final result proved that although the skull was a genuine fossil, the jaw was a carefully dyed counterfeit.

The relationship between science and human factors

Any scientific advancement shall be closely related to human factors, no matter for the adoption of the scientific methodologies or the obtaining of the scientific findings. All of these cannot be made without the conduct of humans, particularly those scientists. It is also impossible and absurd to remove the human factors to reduce the errors that happened within the human factors. This is like putting the cart before the horse. The better way to reduce the occurrence rate of errors in science is to increase the overall quality of scientists instead of removing human factors.

Life lesson from Piltdown Hoax

Piltdown Man evolution hoax reminds us about the danger of confirmation bias. All scientists can learn a lesson from this hoax, which is not to see what they want to see. For every scientist, they should treat the below statement as their motto: the good thing about science is that it's true, whether or not you believe in it. All people should have a minimum moral bottom line. Scientists should stick to the moral bottom line. Because if scientists do not have a moral bottom line, the more their scientific knowledge, the more troubles and disasters they bring to humans.