Piltdown Hoax

In the early 1900's, a laborer was digging at Barkham Manor near the village of Piltdown, when he discovered a piece of skull. This took place in Sussex, a rural county in southeast England. The piece of skull was given to an archaeologist by the name of Charles Dawson. During this time they were in search of the missing link, which was considered to be half human and half ape. On the 18th of December of 1912, Sir Arthur Woodward and Charles Dawson presented mankinds early ancestor to the word. In the year 1912, this was a very big deal because little was known about human fossils. the piltdown man was nicknamed "the earliest Englishman." The finding was made world news and the small town of Piltdown became the most famous place on earth. Piltdown man was placed in London's Natural History Museum.

The fault that came into play in this scenairo is that they got two excited and went looking for more. This in return brought doubts to the people. The people doubted if the skull really matched the jawbone that was found in the same place. Fourty years later it was found that the skull was a fake and the scientist were embarresed. The British scientist felt fooled for believing in this for so long.

It was in the museum were Kenneth Oakley applied a chemical test to help date the fossil. It turned out to be that the fossil dated much younger than expected. The test were carried to estimate the nitrogen content and in fact it did prove that it was not a human skull. The teeth had been filed down and stained. The key discovery was one canine tooth that was filed down in a rush and colored with paint.

I don't think it is possible to remove the human factor from science. Us humans are the most curious on discovering new things and as well as becoming great historians. We want to be the center of attention and the oportunity lies on discovering new things.

The lesson that we are given is that envy can overpower us only for a short period of time. My mother always states that the truth will always come to light. Sometimes it comes later, but it always comes when you least expect it. We must be very careful and always have a lot of evidence to back up our theories.

Analogy/Homology Blog Post

1) Homology

a.  A dolphin and a sheep have the same skeletal structure, eventhough, one is adapted for swimming and the other for running.

b. The majority of tetrapods have the same forelimb bone arrangement: one arm bone (humerus), two forearm bones (radius and ulna), a number of wrist (carpal) bones and five metacarpals (located in the palm) joined to five sets of phalanges (bones of the fingers).

c. I believe that the common ancestor could have been a reptile. A reptile can be adapted for both water and land thus creating these two animals. 

 

       

2) Analogy

a. The wings of various unrelated flying animals, such as insects and vertebrates( known as birds) resemble one another superficially, but their structures are very different.

b.  Vertebrate (bird)  wings are modified forelimbs supported by bones. Insect wings are outgrowths of the upper wall of the thorax and are supported by chitinous veins.

c. I believe that the ancestores of the bird and insect both possesed the same trait. The reason for this is because they were both designed for aviation.