Researchers have recreated the face of the so-called Piltdown Man, considered one of the most confusing scientific hoaxes. This great hoax of the century led paleontologists to believe in the existence of an ancient hominid known as Piltdown Man in the first half of the 20th century. However, in 1953 the creature was revealed to be a fraud, displaying an unusual combination of human and ape-like features. Now scientists have presented a model of what this fake creature might look like.

“Piltdown Man” was the invention of lawyer and amateur geologist Charles Dawson, who presented findings to London’s Natural History Museum in 1912 that appeared to prove a transitional link between apes and humans. He presented the skull, jaw and tooth remains he found in Piltdown, England, and convinced the museum’s geology curator, Arthur Smith Woodward, of the authenticity of these finds.

Assessing the color of the remains, Woodward determined that they were mineralized approximately half a million years ago. At a meeting of the Geological Society in December 1912, Woodward and Dawson formally introduced Piltdown Man, given the Latin name Eoanthropus dawsoni, making him a previously unknown species of ancient man.

This discovery brought fame to Dawson and Woodward, but some paleontologists immediately expressed doubts. For example, American scientist William King Gregory, who was present at the meeting, later declared that Piltdown Man was a “deliberate falsification”.

Despite these doubts, the find was considered genuine until an article was published in Time magazine in 1953, providing evidence that Piltdown Man was a combination of modern human skull fragments, an orangutan jaw, and chimpanzee teeth.

As the report’s authors reported in a Museum of Natural History newsletter, the scientific community fell prey to “the most elaborate and well-thought-out hoax”; it was “so shameless and incomprehensible that it had no analogues in paleontological discoveries”

When the forgery was eventually uncovered, investigators examined the artifacts in 2016 and upon initial examination discovered exactly how Dawson had manipulated the items to conceal their true nature. They also discovered that the bones were specially treated with iron solution to make them look older.

Although Piltdown Man is fictional, a scientific team including forensic scientist and 3D illustrator Cicero Moraes was able to recreate the potential appearance of this fictional hominid. Using scans of human, orangutan and chimpanzee skulls, Moraes created a digital model of the creature’s skull.

After this, the soft tissue markings of the human face were modified to fit the new skull model, and Moraes then used his artistic freedom to choose skin and hair color.

The result is the first reliable facial reconstruction of a 500,000-year-old hominid species that never actually existed, opening new perspectives in paleontological forgery research. Source