Pilty

You may or may not have heard of Eoanthropus Dawsoni. From 1912 to 1951, this infamous hoax was believed by many to be the ‘missing link’ between apes and men. You may know it better as Piltdown Man. But what’s really fascinating to me about the whole story of Charles Dawson and his Dawn Man is how it was eventually proved to be fake.

Now, people suspected there was something fishy about Eoanthropus Dawsoni from the get go. While a lot of people defended the find, there were those who pointed out the anatomical flaws and argued that it was clearly made from separate fossils. So why did it take 40 years to figure out the thing wasn’t legit?