Piltdown man

[ pilt-doun ]

noun

1. a hypothetical early modern human, assigned to the genus Eoanthropus, whose existence was inferred from skull fragments that were allegedly found at Piltdown, England, in 1912 but were exposed as fraudulent through chemical analysis in 1953.

Piltdown man

/ ˈpɪltˌdaʊn /

noun

1. 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

Piltdown man

/ pĭlt′doun′ /

1. A presumed early species of human, Eoanthropus dawsoni, postulated from a skull supposedly found in a gravel bed in about 1912 but determined in 1953 to be a fake constructed from a human cranium and the jawbone of an ape.

Example Sentences

At least, the original fabricator of the Piltdown man knew that it was all a hoax.

From The Guardian

What’s discussed rather less frequently is that early 20th century views on Piltdown man were far more complex than popularly portrayed.

From Scientific American

Manipulated history can offer us clumsy impostures like Piltdown man, or the vile fantasies involved in Holocaust denial.

From BBC

The former is almost as old as the Piltdown man, and its former existence was revealed by the discovery in the Mauer Sands, near Heidelberg, in 1908, of a very massive and chinless jaw.

From Project Gutenberg

Birmingham, 1913, he is inclined to regard "Piltdown man, or some close relative" as "on the direct line of descent with ourselves."

From Project Gutenberg