The Piltdown Hoax keeps fooling new fans and it bugs me

So I was at the Natural History Museum in London last month and overheard a tour guide tell people Piltdown Man was a legit missing link. It was exposed back in 1953, the jawbone was an orangutan and the skull was medieval. Why do we still let this fake story stick around in displays and talks, when sites like Olduvai Gorge have real evidence from 1.8 million years ago? Is it just because the hoax makes a better story, or do you think museums should scrub it entirely? I say keep it as a lesson, but label it clearly, and I want to know where others land.

2 comments

2 Comments

king.robin6d ago

My buddy once asked a museum guard if the Piltdown skull was real, and the guy just shrugged and said “probably,” true story.

jamie_carter876d ago

Read somewhere that even Darwin's supporters fell for it back in the day, wild.