PILTDOWN MAN: 100 Year Old Fossil Hoax, Natural History Museum, London

Piltdown Fossils on display at the Natural History Museum, London

A little over 100 years ago, in December 1912, the British Museum announced the discovery of fossils that appeared to be the missing link between humans and apes.  The bones, which included a human skull and an apelike jaw with human teeth, seemed to provide startling new evidence about human evolution.  In fact, the finds were fake.  It was not until the 1940's that the hoax was uncovered, revealing that the bones were much younger than had been originally thought and that the jaw actually belonged to an orangutan.  Today, those fossils, which altered the course of scientific thinking for nearly half a century, are on display at the Natural History Museum in London.  On a recent trip to London I had a chance to see the exhibit.

Reconstruction of skull based on Piltdown finds

The fossils had been found by Charles Dawson, a Sussex solicitor whose hobby was paleontology.  Throughout England fossils are found in gravel pits and road cuttings and Dawson, like many others, had a hobby of collecting them.  When he heard from some workmen repairing a road near Piltdown Common not far from his home in Sussex that they had uncovered a human bone, Dawson went to look for more.  What he found was a thick human skull and an apelike jawbone that appeared to be about five hundred thousand years old. Dawson took his discoveries to the British Museum where he showed them to Dr. Arthur Smith Woodward, head of the geology department.  Woodward immediately recognized the importance of Dawson’s discoveries and returned with him to the Piltdown site, accompanied by a third man, Teilhard de Chardin.  The men continued to dig.  They found more bones, including those of animals such as elephants and hippopotamuses, and more flint tools.

The skull became known as Piltdown Man.  Yet, it presented a puzzle to anthropologists, for it was a piece that simply did not fit into the other known facts about human evolution.  Most people believed that the jaw and teeth began to evolve into their human form quite early in history, and that the enlarged skull evolved later.  However, the Piltdown skull suggested the opposite order of events.  Some scientists developed elaborate theories to make the Piltdown skull fit into the scheme of evolution.  Others were skeptical from the beginning.

Nearly forty years later, Dr. Kenneth Oakley, a British geologist, discovered that bones buried in the earth absorb fluorine from ground water.  The longer the bones are buried, the more fluorine they absorb.  In 1949 Dr. Oakley tested the Piltdown skull and found that it was much newer than previously thought. Further tests were then done–including x-ray spectrography, geiger counter readings, and improved chemical dating techniques–proving conclusively that the “ancient” jaw had come from a modern orangutan and had been artificially stained to create its old appearance.  Telltale scratches on the molars showed that the teeth had been filed to make them look more like human teeth.  Also, the forger had cleverly broken the hinge of the jaw so it would not be obvious that the jaw did not fit with the skull.

Who was the forger?  The evidence pointed to someone with expert knowledge.  Dawson was the logical suspect, for he lived in the area and could easily have planted the fake fossils in the dig.  He also had a large fossil collection that could have included the animal fossils such as those which accompanied the Piltdown skull.  Other people involved in the discovery may also have had a hand in the deception. All the people who were involved in the Piltdown discoveries are now dead, and many of the questions remain a mystery. To mark the centenary of the Piltdown finds, they are being re-analyzed using the latest technology.  Possibly some questions will finally be answered.  In any case, Piltdown man remains one of the most fascinating and longest-running scientific hoaxes of the twentieth century.

Main Hall, Natural History Museum, London

If you are in London and at the Natural History Museum, you will find the display about Piltdown Man in the hallway leading to the entrance of the dinosaur exhibit.  It is not large so it is easy to miss, but worth stopping to look.
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