Week 5 - Piltdown Hoax Blog Post

The Piltdown hoax, being one of the most infamous in the history of evolution theory research, began when amateur archeologist Charles Dawson “found” remains of human skull in his backyard in Piltdown, England in 1912. He claimed to have found a piece of an ape looking jaw with human like teeth in it. He invited fellow archeologist Arthur Woodward and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard to help him search the rest of the site for evidence. The discovery of the Jaw bone first led the scientific community to believe that they had found the earliest ancestor to human species. This news brought joy to England since no primitive human fossil has ever been found on the island. Considering the age at which scientist estimated the bone to be, England would have had evidence of having the most primitive of human ancestry. Dawson was invited to be honored at the Royal Society which was his dream come true.

               However, fame only lasted so long until the hoax was uncovered with the help of advanced scientific tools, processes and methodologies. Before the hoax was uncovered, scientists had their doubts, but no one wanted to rain on the pride of this English discovery. Even more, Woodward’s prestige in the scientific community for his archeological research was clearly established which lessened suspicion. Therefore, when it was discovered that the fossils were fabricated, it shocked the world.

               One can’t help but wonder, how could this have happened? Without the access to advanced research methods, human faults played a significant role in the making of the hoax. While it is easy to place all the blame on Dawson’s pride and aspiration for the entire outcome of the hoax, members of the English scientific community also played a significant role. Their pride in ancestry and jealousy of mainland Europe fossil discoveries clouded their judgement in evaluating the accuracy and validity of the discovery.

               The main aspect of the scientific process that helped uncover the hoax was retesting the hypothesis by analyzing the evidence and doing additional research outside of English influence. With the help of the microscope, process of dating using fluorine content calculation and additional outside research, the hoax was finally proven to be fake 40 years later. Researchers found microscopic evidence of artificial erosion of teeth which indicated that the “human” teeth were not human after all. Fluorine content calculations helped identify roughly that the age of the fossils were no more than 100,000 years old, as opposed to first evaluations that claimed the bones were millions of years old. International discoveries in Africa and Asia of younger fossils that looked less human which confused scientist about the history of the Piltdown fossils and their connection to human ancestry. Along with the discovery of superficial staining and the Jaw bone belonging to an 100 year old female Orangutan, the Piltdown man was finally deemed a hoax.

               It was learned after this event that the human factor can be a huge distraction in the scientific realm. However, although it may prevent any hoax like Piltdown to ever happen again, the human factor cannot be removed from science. After all, it is human drive and aspirations, like that of Dawson’s, that leads us to legitimate scientific discoveries. Science wouldn’t seem so fun if it weren’t for the passion and drive exhibited by those involved. Computers will always work alongside us but they won’t be able to program drive, motivation, and intuition in order to pursue scientific discovery themselves.

               There are several lessons to be learned from the Piltdown Hoax. One, never trust blindly, even if it means challenging possible greatness and upsetting others in authority. Two, it is okay to be wrong. All of human advances aren’t made through perfection and being wrong doesn’t mean you cannot be a great scientist one day. Three, put pride aside for the sake of science. Pride, as we have seen in this example, was the main catalyst in the snowball effect of the Piltdown Hoax. It all started with Dawson’s pride and wish to be apart of the Royal Society. Next thing, the entirety of England refused to explore the possibility that the discovery is not what it seems. Finally, the hoax ended up distracting good scientific work for 40 years. Objectivity should be the number one guide when conducting scientific research.