The Piltdown Man

The infamous event of the Piltdown hoax is one that continues to draw speculative attention over a century after the initial announcement of the paleoanthropological findings. Although many scientists, especially those involved in the field of paleoanthropology, would like to forget the incident entirely, the Piltdown man—taxonomically referred to as Eoanthropus dawsoni—is perhaps the greatest hoax in anthropological history. By 1912, British archaeologists and paleontologists were desperate for a significant paleoanthropological finding that would provide the missing link between humans and apes in hominin evolution (Prosser, 2009). The Piltdown man was originally a famous finding that straddled the human-animal boundary, dichotomously

Throughout the term, reading the book, “Through a Window” by Jane Goodall has been quite intriguing for me, in that it has inspired me with new ideas and perceptions about how our own species has evolved over time. I have really enjoyed seeing the many similarities that hominids share with other primate species, especially chimpanzees. Goodall’s research only further proves that we are not only extremely biologically similar to chimpanzees in our DNA, but have many behavioral similarities as well. The film, “Monkey in the Mirror” also shows support for our likeness in intellectuality. These documented findings on chimpanzee and human resemblances provides the strong evidence needed to conclude the fact that humans do indeed share a common ancestor with great apes.

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Forensic anthropologists examined Kennewick Man’s skull and compared it to other skulls of Polynesians and native Americans. His skull is large and narrow with a projecting face. This does and resemble skulls of Native Americans. Scientists also created a clay facial reconstruction of the Kennewick Man using the information from his skull. The reconstruction shows similar features and facial structure to Polynesians, not Native Americans. The skull shows no resemblance to Native American skulls in structure. The morphology of the Kennewick Man’s skull further allude him as a Polynesian. (Achenbach,

In the first section of the book, before the trial, the foundation for the controversy was arranged. Charles Dawson discovered bones and other fragments of a skull that were known as the Piltdown skull. The Piltdown skull was first thought to have been from a normal ape, but later evidence collected from Arthur Smith Woodward said otherwise. The skull was said to have been from an

In the Article “Redrawing Humanity’s Family Tree” by John Noble Wilford, describes how two different skulls challenge the theories of human origins and migrations. The Central African skull, that dates back to nearly 7 million years ago, was assigned to a whole new genus and species because of its apelike and evolved hominid species. The 1.75-million-year-old Georgian skull shows evidence that the first hominids may have been intercontinental travelers who set motion the migrations that occupied the whole planet. Finally a third skull was found that is the same age and shares a resemblance but, the size of the skull suggests that the brain was smaller than expected for H. erectus.

Discoveries relating to the human lineage are extremely exciting and often baffling. This is the case with the recent discovery of what seems to be the oldest member of the human family. A skull found in northern Chad in 2001, has been deemed the earliest relative to the human ever found. Nicknamed Toumai, and discovered by Michel Brunet and his paleontology team, this new category of human has been given the scientific name, Sahelanthropus tchaensis. What makes this skull so definitive is the fact that it dates back approximately 6-7 million years in the earth’s history (Whitfield 2002). Since the discovery there have been anthropologists and paleontologists that have

I decided to use the term "missing link" simply because around that time, scientists believed Piltdown man was, in fact, the "missing link" to our lineage from which we evolved. I did not use it because I believe it is an accurate depiction of the primate lineage. The faults which persuaded the perpetrator, or perpetrators, would depend on who was the one behind the Piltdown hoax. For instance, years later after Piltdown man was exposed as a hoax, a trunk with Martin A. C. Hilton's initials were found in the attic of the Natural History Museum after his passing. In in they discovered bones with carvings and stains similar to those of Piltdown man. Martin A. C. Hilton was known to not be very fond of Charles Dawson, his drive. Charles Dawson,

Afropithecus is a fairly large extinct ape- 50kg, characterized by a lack of a prehensile tail, long snout with procumbent incisors, generalized limb proportions and thick molar enamel. The braincase of Afropithecus is fairly small in size compared to other Miocene apes and Old World Monkeys from the same area. The primitive characteristics of Afropithecus suggest a relation to early catarrhines- such as Aegyptopithecus. And the post-cranial fossil record suggest that it was both arboreal and quadrupedal, similar to the proconsul that Afropithecus is categorized

I glanced to see what the big fuss was about. It just had to be a bone. I can’t even get a decent day off of work. It’s rare to get a good day off, due to there being fewer than 60 certified forensic anthropologists in the entire country. It seemed a couple days old, 6 days at the most.I grabbed Manchitas and observed the scene first

The “wrist morphology” is more similar to that of African ape/humans than that of Neanderthals or Homo Sapiens (iv.). The reason that this is contradictory to the theory that Lb1 is simply a mutated member of Homo Erectus is that the wrist structure actually forms during the early stages of prenatal development greatly decreasing the possibility that the wrist structure could have been a modified version of modern Homo’s. This evidence would indicate that Lb1 belongs to a species of Homo that branched off before the evolution of the modern wrist structure that was prevalent in more recent

He believes this shows a link between all species that ever lived such as microbes, sharks, frogs, bears, and their relation to man. Meaning that in the world of animal behavior we may have all came from a specific species and evolved throughout history. This may also shed light onto the animal behavior world by relaying some of the information that we know as being apart of out interconnectedness from one species. In reality his finding was a type of basis for humanity, it links our evolutionary world and all species together. The idea that we are all divergent parts of one evolution, really shows that the behavior an animal may have may also be explained by

advantages to open new opportunities for the early primates that allowed to crack up bones and nuts for food. Likewise, these tools were both found with Australopithecus boisei that shared the same terrain during the same time period with the Homo habilis. “If australopithecines were equally skillful, then [the explanation that there is an association with intelligence and tool making would] fail” (Lewin and Foley 293). These tools both found with the Australopithecines and homo species pushed new theories into action about how humans succeeded into what they are currently. Also, one very unusual specimen was found in the island of Flores. A new species that taught that scientific community to reevaluate the human evolution and how they became

In the 1920s Raymond Dart, then a young anatomy professor in Johannesburg South Africa began his research in archaeology. It is important to remember that the prevailing theory of the day was the Piltdown discovery, later revealed to be a hoax, was accepted as The Missing Link between apes and humans. In 1912 Charles Dawson and Alfred Smith Woodward presented Piltdown Man to the UK Geographical Society. The findings were from an excavation site in Piltdown, Sussex, England. The discovery marked the first significant evidence of early humans in the British Isles. Piltdown Man more easily conformed to the Eurocentric thinking of the time rather than the Afrocentric theories of evolution that Dart and his successors would prove.

       In the article, "Natural History of Homo erectus" by Susan C. Antón discussed our view of H. erectus is different today than when Pithecanthropus erectus, then only the second fossil hominin taxon to be discovered, was described by Dubois (1894) (Antón, C. Susan, 162). H. erectus was the most primitive and smallest-brained of the fossil hominins (Antón, C. Susan, 162). Therefore, early observations expended significant effort showing that the Indonesian fossils from Trinil were actually hominins (Antón, C. Susan, 162). Thus, it took the dismissal of Piltdown and the broad acceptance of Australopithecus as a hominin ancestor, along with the substantial Asian