Piltdown

a settlement in Sussex County, Great Britain. In the early 20th century, fragments of two human craniums, a fragment of a lower jaw, and individual teeth were found near Piltdown in sedimentary deposits of the Neogene. The cranial bones were similar in structure to those of modern man, whereas the lower jaw resembled that of an anthropoid ape. The extraordinary combination of traits in the Piltdown man was used to support theories regarding the very ancient evolution of modern man (Neoanthropus). The finds suggested that modern man’s evolution was independent from that of the archanthropines and paleoanthropines.

Reexamination of the bones in 1953 showed that the remains were fraudulent. Only the fragments of one cranium belonged to an early Neoanthropus. The jawbone, which belonged to a chimpanzee, and the second cranium, which was that of a modern man, had been stained with potassium dichromate to look aged.