The tale of Piltdown Man, the most infamous forgery in the contentious

Question

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Passage # 70, Date: 05-May-2020
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The tale of Piltdown Man, the most infamous forgery in the contentious detective story of the origins of mankind, began in 1912. On December 18 that year Charles Dawson, a well-known amateur British archaeologist, and Arthur Smith Woodward, of the British Museum of Natural History, announced the discovery of some amazing human fossils. The remains comprised nine pieces of skull, a broken jaw with two teeth in place, a few stone tools, and some animal bones, all of which had been discovered on a farm near Piltdown Common in Sussex. When pieced together the skull looked distinctly human. Although Piltdown Man, as the hominid became known, had unusually thick bones, the brain case was large and rounded. There was no sign of prominent brow ridges or other apelike features. However, the shape of the jaw bone resembled that of an ape. The only human characteristic of this jaw was the wear on the two molars, which were ground down flat, as is frequently true of hominids who eat tough or abrasive foods, such as seeds. In other words the creature had the jaw of an ape and the skull of Homo sapiens.

The primitive stone tools found with these remains suggested a remote age for Piltdown Man, perhaps the Early Pleistocene or even the Late Pliocene. (In 1912 experts thought the Pliocene lasted from 1 million to 600 000 years ago. Scientists now date it to between 5 million and 1.7 million years ago.) This date was also supported by some animal bones found with Piltdown Man. To most scientists of the time, Piltdown Man fulfilled a prediction made by the pioneering evolutionist Charles Darwin, who had believed that humans and the apes could be connected genetically through a still undiscovered creature. Most significantly, it was half-human in precisely the feature that was then accepted as the most important difference between humans and the apes - the brain. At this time there was little fossil evidence to contradict the idea that the brain was among the first of the human features to evolve.

As time went on, however, Homo erectus fossils were found in Java and China, while in South Africa the australopithecines were being discovered. All these fossils had human-like jaws and teeth and relatively small brains in contrast to Piltdown Man's large cranium and apelike jaw. The large brain simply did not fit with the rest of the fossil evidence. By 1948 scientists knew that bones buried in the earth gradually absorb fluorine. The older a bone, the more fluorine it contains. When the Piltdown materials were tested for fluorine, the skull and jaw fragments turned out to be much younger than the Early Pleistocene animal bones with which the skull had been found.

Scientists were now very suspicious. In 1953 all the Piltdown material was tested for its authenticity. Not only was the recent age of the jaw and skull confirmed, but the jaw proved to be that of a modern orangutan, with the teeth filed down in a quite obvious manner to imitate wear on human teeth. But the forger had not stopped there. A bone tool found with the remains had been made in recent times with a steel knife, which leaves different marks than does a stone flake or axe. The tools, as well as the animal bones, had been taken from different archaeological sites. Once the forgery was exposed by modem scientific analysis the mystery was no longer where Piltdown Man came in human evolution but who was responsible for the hoax, and why? Although Dawson, the discoverer of most of the Piltdown material, is frequently singled out as the person responsible for this practical joke, there is no definite proof and the question is far from settled.   1 
 1. The Piltdown skull seemed distinctly human because it had

I large brain
II thick bones
III brow ridges
A. I only 
B. II only 
C. III only 
D. I and III only 
E. I, II and III

2 
 2. The scientists of the time made which of the following mistakes

A. believed that fossil discoveries would reveal much about human origins 
B. had preconceived ideas about what features an early hominid should have 
C. followed the ideas of Darwin in the face of counterevidence 
D. incorrectly judged the size of the brain 
E. failed to examine other fossil evidence available at the time

3 
 3. The animal bones found buried with the Piltdown Man were all of the following except

A. shown to be genuinely Pleistocene 
B. more recent than first thought 
C. unconnected with the human remains 
D. deliberately planted at the site 
E. not originally from the Piltdown site

4 
 4. It can be inferred that it took so long to expose the forgery because

A. the forger was exceptionally clever making it difficult to detect the alterations 
B. reliable techniques for dating rocks did not exist until recently 
C. the bones were not subjected to close scrutiny until considerable contradictory evidence accumulated 
D. the scientists had no reason to doubt the credibility of the team who made the discovery 
E. similar fossils from other archeological sites had proved to be genuine

msk0657 · Answer

Hi Sajid,

You are doing good job posting RCs from various sources and you need to notice one thing some of your RC posts are not formatted correctly and some information is missing in the passages. If you observe that in this passage itself the last paragraph is incomplete.

Can you give me the official explanation for the question no 3.

skgmatclub2016 · Answer

Your passages are really good.. but they are not presented in the form as it would appear on the exam. There are other posts as below which does present the passage and questions side by side correctly. could you please post it in similar way..

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-work-of- ... 34618.html

poojakhanduja3017 · Answer

Got 3/4 Correct. 
1. The Piltdown skull seemed distinctly human because it had

Honestly, they made it simpler by not adding the option I and II. If they had added that, i would have gone for that. 
 Brow Ridges were clearly not the symptoms of being human

2. The scientists of the time made which of the following mistakes

A. believed that fossil discoveries would reveal much about human origins :  This is not mentioned anywhere 
B. had preconceived ideas about what features an early hominid should have  Correct 
C. followed the ideas of Darwin in the face of counterevidence   It is written as a coincidence that the findings were consistent with what Darwin said. But the passage doesn't say that the scientists followed his idea  
D. incorrectly judged the size of the brain   This is irrelevant  
E. failed to examine other fossil evidence available at the time   This isn't mentioned in the passage

For question 3, I am still not convinced about the OA, hence I will also wait for OE.
 The last line of 3rd Para clearly says that they were much younger. Bookmarking the question for now.

4. It can be inferred that it took so long to expose the forgery because

A. the forger was exceptionally clever making it difficult to detect the alterations   He was clever but that wasn't why it took so long  
B. reliable techniques for dating rocks did not exist until recently   Instead they didn't go in the direction of dating until the contradictions 
C. the bones were not subjected to close scrutiny until considerable contradictory evidence accumulated  Correct 
D. the scientists had no reason to doubt the credibility of the team who made the discovery   Scientists who discovered themselves are doubted for this "joke" as the passage says 
E. similar fossils from other archeological sites had proved to be genuine   never compares to other fossils or talks about them

SiffyB · Answer

1. The Piltdown skull seemed distinctly human because it had

I large brain
II thick bones
III brow ridges

A. I only  
B. II only
C. III only
D. I and III only
E. I, II and III

This is straightforward question. According to the passage, "..the creature had the jaw of an ape and the skull of Homo sapiens." Clearly, the correct option is (A) I only.

2. The scientists of the time made which of the following mistakes
 
A. believed that fossil discoveries would reveal much about human origins
  B. had preconceived ideas about what features an early hominid should have 
 C. followed the ideas of Darwin in the face of counterevidence
D. incorrectly judged the size of the brain
E. failed to examine other fossil evidence available at the time

This is an interesting question. It talks about the mistakes the scientists made at that time because of which the evidence related to Piltdown Man were not challenged. Let's look at the options we have and do PoE on them:
(A) This is nowhere stated in the passage and is not the correct option. 
(B) This is the correct choice. Refer to this text: "To most scientists of the time, Piltdown Man fulfilled a prediction made by the pioneering evolutionist Charles Darwin...". This shows that the associated with Darwin's predication and thought that the Piltdown man could've actually been a real creature. This option is a strong contender. Let's keep it.
(C) There is no situation of counterevidence talked about in the second paragraph where the discovery and next steps are discussed. The counterevidence is referred to in the third paragraph. This option is wrong in the current context.
(D) Wrong choice. Not stated in the passage.
(E) This is a close and tempting incorrect choice. We're not sure whether they failed to examine the other fossil evidence. Not stated in the passage.

3. The animal bones found buried with the Piltdown Man were all of the following except
 
A. shown to be genuinely Pleistocene
  B. more recent than first thought 
 C. unconnected with the human remains
D. deliberately planted at the site
E. not originally from the Piltdown site

This is a great question. Let's find out which one is not stated in the passage:
(A) The author never doubts in the passage that the bones were not genuinely Pleistocene. The human skull's authenticity is debated. Thus, this option is incorrect.
(B) This is our correct choice. The author never says that the bones were younger or older than first thought. 
(C) This is also incorrect, since the bones are indeed shown to be taken from different archaelogical site and is unconnected to the human remains.
(D) This is also incorrect. Refer to the sentence : "the mystery was no longer where Piltdown Man came in human evolution but who was responsible for the hoax, and why?" This was a hoax and someone had planted the bones as evidence.
(E) This is also the incorrect option.

4. It can be inferred that it took so long to expose the forgery because
 
A. the forger was exceptionally clever making it difficult to detect the alterations
B. reliable techniques for dating rocks did not exist until recently
  C. the bones were not subjected to close scrutiny until considerable contradictory evidence accumulated 
 D. the scientists had no reason to doubt the credibility of the team who made the discovery
E. similar fossils from other archeological sites had proved to be genuine

This was a relatively easier call. According to the passage, the scientists went back to the Piltdown Man only when there was no evidence discovered from other world sites that could lend credability to the hominid.

VerbalBot · Answer

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The tale of Piltdown Man, the most infamous forgery in the contentious

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