Paleontological hoaxes, II

In 1912 Charles Dawson, lawyer and amateur archeologist, brought human skull fragments to a paleontologist at the British Museum of Natural History and said the bones had been found by workmen in a gravel pit a few years earlier. Subsequently Dawson found other bits of worn and stained teeth, an ape-like jaw, and flint tools. These findings were presented at a meeting of the Geological Society of London as a new human ancestor. Dawson made further discoveries, strengthening this interpretation, and for the next 30 years Piltdown man was considered a legitimate part of human prehistory and included in textbooks.

However, in 1953 Piltdown was exposed as a hoax. Chemical tests showed the bones to be much younger than originally claimed. Once the seeds of doubt were planted, critical observation revealed that the bones had been stained and the teeth artificially worn, and the flint tools were found to have been shaped with modern blades. Dawson died before the hoax was revealed, so we may never with certainty whodunit and what the motive was, but we can entertain several possibilities....