The Piltdown Man was supposed to be the "missing link" that completed the evolutionary link between humans and apes, but this was not the case. What was thought to be a human skull was found by Charles Dawson, who was not a highly respected archaeologist at the time. He revealed it to the scientific community in 1912. Dawson thought it was a human skull but it ended up being a jawbone that dated back a million years. It was found in a gravel pit and when it was revealed scientists thought that these could be found all over, but there were only ones found in Asia and Africa but they were not as old. There was some suspicion of the truth behind the Piltdown Man.
The scientific community was so quick to accept the Piltdown Man as true before all of the proper tests were ran to see the facts. There was only so many tests at this time because technology was only so far advanced. Now days there are way more advanced tests because of how far technology has come since 1912. They did not have enough evidence when they revealed it to support what they were claiming and that was the problem when they figured out it was not in fact what they were saying.
The Piltdown Man came out as a fraud because of the tests that were done on it after it was shown to the community and if these tests were done before, they would have known that the other fossils they were finding around the world were in fact the same as this skull. The skull was actually from a female orangutan and after looking more in detail at the skull they were able to figure this out. It was put in Florine and it changed color and the teeth were too smooth to be a fossil of this age. The skull changed color in the Florine and this raised some questions. All of this could have been avoided if these tests were done before it was shown, but Dawson wanted to be the finder of the oldest fossil but it ruined him.
I do not think there is any way to remove human error completely because there are people who are going to do the research. I guess if there were computers that did it all that might eliminate error, but then again who would design these programs? With the Piltdown Man there was a lot of pride involved because there was no huge discoveries like this before that time so Dawson wanted to make sure he was the one who did it. There needs to be people who find these fossils and do the work because without them nothing would get done and there would be no new discoveries. Dawson showed everyone a fake and because of there there is now more careful testing before things are released to the public to avoid things like that from happening.
This is a great life lesson because this shows how easily one can get caught up in fame and forget what can happen if they are proved wrong. Dawson was way more concerned with fame and becoming famous for this that he forgot what could happen if anyone found out. After they did he became a joke, which was the opposite of what he wanted to be in the beginning. Being known for this was his first priority and that was wrong and that was his biggest mistake. He ruined himself because of his pride, and that is a good lesson. Don't let your pride get in the way of your brain.
I understand that the video uses the term "missing link" but did you have the opportunity to review the video in the assignment folder about the use of this term? Is it valid to use this term to explain the importance of Piltdown? There was another, more important piece of information that would have been gained from this find, had it been valid regarding the size of the cranium and which came first, bipedalism vs. large brains. Did you see that information?
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, good background.
For the faults section, you don't actually identify any faults. You also seem to let the scientists off rather easily. True, there weren't as many tests available, but tests performed later that revealed the staining and reshaping of the teeth and bones could also have been performed during the time the fossil was initially found. There were scientists skeptical of the find. Why didn't they speak up more forcefully? Scientists were actually prevented from accessing the fossil for further tests. Why didn't they complain about a practice that went against the basic process of science? Why did they seem to want to accept this find and express so little inclination toward necessary skepticism?
Also, why was the hoax committed in the first place? Why did the perpetrators (whomever they were), create the hoax? What faults were involved there?
Your description of the fluorine analysis is not correct. Make sure you review that information so you understand how that dating method works.
Aside from the technology, what qualities of the process of science itself helped to uncover the hoax? Why were they still analyzing this find 40 years later?
I agree that we can't do away with the human factor, but other than someone to write the computer programs, aren't their other positive aspects of humans that we can't do without? Curiosity? Ingenuity? Intuition? Could we even do science without these qualities?
Great life lesson. Good explanation.