The Piltdown Man Hoax: 41 Years of Evolutionary Deception

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]In 1912, an amateur archaeologist brought a fever to the scientific community [music] when he revealed his recent discovery, one that provided the missing link between man and ape in the evolutionary process. Yet, it was [music] completely fake. That archaeologist was Charles Dawson, and his discovery was a fossil of a human skull, but with a very large jawbone and teeth. When the skull was reassembled, it fooled nearly every expert who examined it, and the new species that had been found was dubbed the Eoanthropus dawsoni, which was Latin for Dawson's dawn man. Evolution suddenly became a very hot topic, and it spawned a number of research projects in the subject. But, despite the fact that Dawson completely fabricated the evidence, it took over 41 years for scientists to realize that they had been duped. Well, nothing like a hoax going on for 41 years to rile up some feathers. So, the 10 biggest hoaxes of all time, part two.