Piltdown Man

The Piltdown Hoax was found in Piltdown Common is Sussex England in the early 1900’s.  I went ahead and researched the topic a little more because it caught my interest.  In the beginning of the video, it states that who found the Piltdown man remains a mystery to do this day.  However, in most of the articles I have read as well as later on in the video, they state that Charles Dawson is the one who found the Piltdown man.  When the Piltdown man was first found, the scientific community was ecstatic.  They thought that Dawson had found the missing link between humans and apes.

Scientists ended up discovering the hoax when they started to look more closely at the fossils.  They did a fluorine test that measured the fluorine content on the fossils so that scientist could roughly date the age of the fossils.  The remains showed that they were rather young.  They then launched a full-scale analysis on the fossils.  It showed that the remains had been stained and were superficial and the material had been cut when the bones had already been fossilized.  The scientists then looked at the Piltdown mans teeth under a microscope and saw that the teeth had been filed down to look like human teeth.  The jawbone that was with the Piltdown mans skull was that dated back less than 100 years and was a female orangutan jaw.  They also noticed that bones had been removed to make the jawbone look like it belonged.  The K-9 teeth had also been filed down to look like human teeth. 

One fault that I believe played a factor in this scenario was jealousy.  I think jealousy played a factor because Britain and Germany were rivals and wanted to up each other wherever and whenever they could.  Britain wanted to prove that they were the first birthplace to the human race.  Dawson was known to be an ambitious man and he may have wanted to be the first Englishman to find the first fossils.  I also think that too many people were in on this hoax to better only themselves and to be recognized and gain titles. 

Scientist before the hoax had their doubts.  As I stated previously the jawbone was that of an orangutan and the teeth, which belonged to an ape, had been filed down to portray human teeth.  Scientists increasingly regarded Piltdown as difficult to interpret and inconsistent with the path of hominid evolution as demonstrated by fossils found elsewhere.

The definition of “human” factors from science is understanding the properties of human capability.  So in my opinion I do not think that it would be possible to take away the “human” factor to reduce the chance of errors.  I say this because in order to try and understand why someone would try and pull of a hoax of this magnitude you need to have an understanding of humans and their behaviors.  Without that I think that it would be hard to figure anything out in this world whether it has to do with science or not.  I personally would not want to take the “human” factor out of science.  Humans play a role in science in almost every situation. 

One life lesson that I can take from this event and just the world in general is that being greedy does not help you in the end. Dawson or the mystery man wanted to be the first to discover the Englishman fossils that would or could have been the first link between humans and apes.  However, in the end it was proven that the fossils were fake and to young.  So now whoever it was the mystery man or Dawson is discredited and had set research back.  Being greedy and selfish do not make you win in the end.