Piltdown man
[ pilt-doun ]
/ ˈpɪltˌdaʊn /
noun
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.
British Dictionary definitions for piltdown man
Piltdown man
/ (ˈpɪltˌdaʊn) /
noun
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
Scientific definitions for piltdown man
Piltdown man
[ pĭlt′doun′ ]
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.