On November 21, 1953, evidence was released that the Piltdown Man skull was a hoax. Zoologists and palaeontologists concluded that the jaw bone was that of an ape and the skull of a human. German anthropologist Franz Weidenreich exposed the hoax in 1923 and it took thirty years for the scientific community to confirm with his findings.
Although often used by creationist hacks as “proof” that scientists can’t be trusted when it comes to evolution, the Piltdown incident is actually a good example of the self-correcting ways of scientific peer review. Anyway, celebrate this little-remembered day in history by reading the FREE prehistoric comic anthology PILTDOWN from Wide Awake Press! Chris Campbell over at WAP is an acquaitance of mine – tell ‘im John Snider at AmericanFreethought.com sent ya.
Tags: piltdown, piltdown man, wide awake press