Pitldown Man

[LinuxGal]

In 1912, Charles Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward announced the discovery of a mandible and part of a skull from a gravel pit near Piltdown, England. The mandible was apelike except for humanlike wear on the teeth; the skull was like a modern human. These bones became the basis for Eoanthropus dawsoni, commonly known as Piltdown Man, interpreted as a 500,000-year-old British ape-man. But in the early 1950s, it was found that the jawbone was stained and filed down to give its appearance and that the skull was a recent human fossil. In short, Piltdown Man was a fraud. British scientists believed it because they wanted to.

Source: Gish, Duane T., 1985. Evolution: The Challenge of the Fossil Record. El Cajon, CA: Creation-Life Publishers, pp. 188-190.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

And let’s not forget that the forgery was perpetrated by a lawyer, not a scientist. Should have been a red flag.

Boru

[Thumpalumpacus]

Gould's essay in The Panda's Thumb, which is where I first learnt of this, is a good read, and makes th's OP does.e same point @LinuxGal