The Greatest Scientific Hoax of the Century.

A missing link to the human evolutionary tree has been discovered.  It was a revolutionary discovery that completely changed the way we look at our phylogenetic tree.  The new creature has been named and placed on the tree where scientists can agree where it belongs,  but it took years to complete because there was so much controversy over the new species discovered, like whether it was real or not.  The human ancestor has caused complete uproar because it was discovered in a highly religious age, creating tension between scientists and religious leaders.  The primitive creature has been determined to exist around 500,000 years ago, long before humans existed and was named Eoanthropus dawsoni, and was given the nickname “Piltdown man”.  It immediately became a worldwide phenomenon. 

Piltdown man was an extremely well thought out hoax, but the mastermind behind it is still unknown. In a quiet town in England in the early 1900s, Charles Dawson, an amateur naturalist, strolled by a quarry and discovered a skull.  He began his research and gained many followers in the scientific community because of this skull and also a few jaw bones and teeth discovered in a nearby area.  Many could not believe Piltdown man was real, so research was constantly being conducted to unveil the hoax, but Dawson became a rich and famous man from his discovery.  Eventually, long after Dawson's death, from the use of modern dating techniques, Piltdown man was named a hoax: the greatest scientific hoax of the century.  

Human Evolution

            The fact that humans once came from “lesser” and simpler animals has baffled many and caused uproar in the scientific and general community alike.  It was once thought that humans evolved in a linear fashion, starting with monkeys, then going to apes, and ending with humans.  But with much research among anthropologists, within the past few decades, it has been decided that we did not come to be so easily.  Humans came from a long line of hominid, or animals more related to humans than chimpanzees are, that struggled to survive and became extinct, leaving humans, one of the only animals to live and be able to flourish on every continent, to virtually take over the entire world.  Everything had to be perfect to create humans as we are today, as one of the only animals with complex social structures and the ability to speak.  

            Along with all these traits that evolved over many, many generations, came the ability to speak, a trait unique to only humans.  Nearly all animals communicate through different ways such as body language, snarling, and high frequency noises like dolphins and whales.  But the development and teaching others of language, and the ability to understand speech through symbols we call letters is extraordinary   

http://humanorigins.si.edu/resources/intro-human-evolution