The Piltdown hoax was a hoax that occurred for over 40 years. The scientific community were outrage after learning the truth of the remains that were found. Charles Darwin a scientist that presented evidence that all living things descended from a common ancestry. Through a process of mutation, adaptation, failure and success, he claimed that all life today including man, is the result of millions of years of evolution. Charles Darwin claim that humans and apes were related but failed to have provable scientific evidence.

 A fossil skull has been found by a laborer at Basrkham Manor near the village of Piltdown and then given to Charles Dawson who was an amateur archaeologist. Charles Dawson who was a lawyer was interested in fossil hunting. He went out on search for fossils. He was particular on what finds he was looking for. He wanted to find spectacular discoveries, publicizing them and trying to build up an academic credibility for his work.  In Sussex he discovered an old Pleistocene bed that he would find remains of an ape-like jawbone with human-like teeth that seemed to link to the skull that Dawson got from the laborer. 

On December 18^th, 1912 Sir Arthur Smith Woodward and Charles Dawson presented the “Piltdown Man.” It was nicknamed the “earliest Englishman.” The world was at awe that they had discovered the first ape-man that proved Charles Darwin theory. Finally, a connection had been found and was made world famous. In the scientific community however, questions started to arise as experts had doubts about how human-like or ape-like this skull was. The jaw was missing the place of articulation, it was broken off and the canine tooth was absent as well but later was found. This made experts weary and ask more questions but it wasn’t until 1953 that an announcement was made that the Piltdown man was a fake. 

It was horrifically embarrassing because people spent their whole career looking at it and claiming it to be real. It was exposed finally from within the museum, the Natural History Museum. The jaw was not human, it was probably from an Orangutan, the teeth had been filed flat to disguise them. The fossils were boiled and then carefully stained with chemicals to give them an aged look. The canine tooth was crudely filed and colored with paint. It remains a mystery as to who really did it.

During these times scientist we’re believed to be scholars and gentlemen. No one could possibly do something like this it wasn’t even a possibility but now you know this can happen so they are alert to that possibility. I believe the human faults to be, being judgmental. Allowing your ego to interfere with your work. This to me negatively impacts the scientific process because it clouds your mind. You are no longer taking a scientific approach but rather a personal one.

The positive aspects of the scientific process that were responsible for revealing the skull to be fraud was measuring the Fluorine content in the fossil remain they were able to tell how old it was. After further testing of all the artifacts that were found were all fraud. If you remove the human factor from science, then there would be no way for new things to be discovered. Life lesson, do your research and don’t accept a fact without you fully testing all possibilities’ take other people’s evidence for truth, always ask questions and be spectacle.