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单词 piltdown man
释义

Piltdown man


Pilt·down man

P0306700 (pĭlt′doun′)n. A proposed species of extinct humans described from a skull uncovered in a gravel bed in England in 1912 but determined in 1953 to be a fake constructed from a human cranium and the jawbone of an orangutan.
[After Piltdown Common in southeast England.]

Piltdown man

(ˈpɪltˌdaʊn) n (Palaeontology) an advanced hominid postulated from fossil bones found in Sussex in 1912, but shown by modern dating methods in 1953 to be a hoax, which was perpetrated by a student museum assistant who was refused a wage

Pilt′down man`

(ˈpɪltˌdaʊn)
n. a hypothetical early modern human whose existence was inferred from bone fragments allegedly found at Piltdown, England, in 1912 but identified as a hoax in 1953.

Piltdown man

A supposed type of primitive human being based on remains found in England in 1912, later discovered to have been a hoax.
Thesaurus
Noun1.Piltdown man - a supposedly primitive man later proven to be a hoaxPiltdown man - a supposedly primitive man later proven to be a hoaxPiltdown hoaxprimitive, primitive person - a person who belongs to an early stage of civilization

Piltdown man


Piltdown man,

name given to human remains found during excavations (1908–15) at Piltdown, Sussex, England, by Charles Dawson. The find led to much speculation and argument. Since they were found with remains of mammals of the Lower Pleistocene epoch, they were supposed to belong to a "Piltdown man" who lived 200,000 to 1,000,000 years ago. Many scientists doubted the whole proposition. They were justified when fluorine tests showed in 1950 that the Piltdown fossil was no more than 50,000 years old. X-ray analysis proved that the jaw was from a chimpanzee; further tests demonstrated conclusively that the jaw and tooth were of modern origin.

There has been much speculation concerning who was responsible for the hoax: Dawson; Arthur Smith Woodward, the paleontologist who identified the fossils as hominin remains; Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who was present during some of the excavations; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who lived nearby and knew Dawson; and others. In 1996, on the basis of evidence found in a trunk in the British Museum, it was suggested that the zoologist Martin A. C. Hinton planted the remains to embarrass Woodward, but other researchers have argued that the evidence most strongly points to Dawson.

Bibliography

See J. S. Weiner, The Piltdown Forgery (1955); R. W. Millar, The Piltdown Men (1972); F. Spencer, Piltdown: A Scientific Forgery (1990); M. Russell, Piltdown Man: The Secret Life of Charles Dawson (2003).

Piltdown man

[′pilt‚dau̇n ‚man] (paleontology) An alleged fossil man based on fragments of a skull and mandible that were eventually discovered to constitute a skillful hoax.

Piltdown man

missing link turned out to be orangutan. [Br. Hist.: Wallechinsky, 46; Time, October 13, 1978, 82]See: Hoax

Piltdown man


Related to Piltdown man: Java man
  • noun

Synonyms for Piltdown man

noun a supposedly primitive man later proven to be a hoax

Synonyms

  • Piltdown hoax

Related Words

  • primitive
  • primitive person
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更新时间:2024/11/12 8:37:50