A
hypothetical stage of
human evolution, now
discredited, based on the discovery of an
ape-like
jawbone found near
Piltdown,
England, close to a
human cranium.
Archaeologists at this time thought that the
large brain of the human evolved before its smaller
mandible, and this was the
evidence they had been looking for. Unfortunately, it happened to be
bunk.
The perpetrator was never discovered, but some evidence points to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Disproven 1953.
Piltdown Man in Tubular Bells, indeed! That was clearly Klingon opera!