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| Group portrait of the Piltdown skull being examined. Back row (from left): F. O. Barlow, G. Elliot Smith, Charles Dawson, Arthur Smith Woodward. Front row: A S Underwood, Arthur Keith, W. P. Pycraft, and Ray Lankester. Note the portrait of Charles Darwin on the wall. Painting by John Cooke, 1915 |
Today on Far Future Horizons we present another
exciting episode of the PBS documentary series NOVA. This instalment of NOVA
concerns the infamous Piltdown hoax.
For
decades, a fossil skull discovered in Piltdown, England, was hailed as the
missing link between apes and humans. Entire careers were built on its
authenticity. Then in 1953, the awful truth came out: "Piltdown Man"
was a fake! But who done it? In "The Boldest Hoax," NOVA gets to the
bottom of the greatest scientific hoodwinking of all time.
