Piltdown Man Hoax

       The Piltdown man fossils were dug up in a hug pit of gravel in England in 1919 by Charles Dawson. Once this piece of a human skull was found, Dawson decided to call in two others to help with the search for more pieces, Author Smith Woodward and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. When the Piltdown fossils were first discovered, scientists believe that those fossils were the missing link between humans and apes. Although, this one piece did not stop the search for the connection of apes and humans, it only motivated them in search for more to possible complete a whole skull. The three men found more fossils that look to be a Paleolithic ancestor. England were so ecstatic to hear that they had found ancient human fossils. With the fossils being discovered, Author Keith, who was England's leading anatomist, was able to have evidence of his theory of evolution. Keith was on board with the Piltdown man because it provided him with actual fossils for his theory. People remained on the hunt for more fossils for the Piltdown man and they did continue to find more, however, once Dawson had passed away, there were no more fossils to be found. Hence, the reason for the Piltdown man to be proven fake.  

       All humans have faults which is why we are not perfect. We all make mistakes and yet we just learn to forgive and forget the mistakes in which we have made. There are some faults that come in to play in this scenario. For example, pride and jealousy are two important faults. Charles Dawson was so proud of himself because of the findings he had discovered. Dawson was so excited to finally have be recognized by the scientific community. Although, jealousy comes into play also once people found out about these discoveries Dawson had made. England scientists could possibly be jealous because they wish they had the ability to find the dated discoveries other countries had been making. Dawson's discovery had an impact on the scientific community and Dawson could be finally accepted by other scientists. These fossils were able to show other countries that England is actually able to dig up findings that are important and interesting to see.

        Scientific testing was done and had lead to the conclusion of the Piltdown man hoax. There were stainings on the bones that were appearing after the fluorine analysis that was going on in Piltdown in 1949. The fluorine analysis allowed scientists to date how old these fossils were. The teeth on the part of the jawline that were present seemed to have been filed down in order for them to look more human. Going back to the staining, they had found a person down the road who could have been another suspect for the hoax of the Piltdown man. He could have been the one behind all of it because in possess were tools that had the same exact staining the fossil had. Everything about this fossil seemed to have been from an ape, and yet someone filed down and stained it to look more human like in order to trick everyone that this fossil was a fossil of a common ancestor between humans and apes.

        I do not believe someone can remove all the human factor from science. Humans are who discover all the findings and scientists do all the calculations in order to date how old a fossil is. Although, sometimes humans do make mistakes, just like stated previously, which is why human have an impact of new discoveries just like with the Piltdown man hoax. If a human was to not mess with this fossil found and not file down any teeth or stain it, I feel the Piltdown man would not be considered a hoax. It was because of this human contact that proved it to be fake. Many believed that this was the connection between humans and apes, however, one human fooled the whole world coming to the conclusion after many testing that the Piltdown man was not real.

       The lesson I have learned after the Piltdown man hoax was that I need to be careful of what people say. Not everything I hear is true. Many people like to twist true information and make it seem completely different then how it actually was said. There is a little truth to every lie. It also could be like the game telephone because if someone hears a statement incorrectly, it could change the way the information is portrayed to another person. I will now learn to no believe everything I hear, and if I were to hear something crazy, I will definitely either do some research or go the actual source from which this information came from.