Piltdown Man: Britain's Greatest Hoax

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• 1. Who was Piltdown Man?
• 2. Search for missing link
• 3. Discoveries
• 4. Doubts and further finds
• 5. Suspicions
• 6. Exposure
• 7. Suspects - the amateur accused
• 8. The writer accused
• 9. An insider job?
• 10. Find out more
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Search for missing link

The story of Piltdown Man came out at just the time when scientists were in a desperate race to find the missing link in the theory of evolution. Since Charles Darwin had published his theory on the origin of species in 1859, the hunt had been on for clues to the ancient ancestor that linked apes to humans.

Sensational finds of fossil ancestors, named Neanderthals, had already occurred in Germany and France. British Scientists, however, were desperate to prove that Britain had also played its part in the story of human evolution, and Piltdown Man was the answer to their prayers - because of him, Britain could claim to be the birthplace of mankind.

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Published: 2003-11-14