Re: Piltdown Man
9 Aug 1995 15:40:05 -0400
This reminds me that it was the same Charles Dawson who had earlier
collected the remains of an iguanodontid dinosaur from the Wadhurst Clay
(lower Wealden) of Sussex that is now called _Iguanodon dawsoni_.
Of course, the Piltdown Man acquired its own genus and species, also named
after Dawson: _Eoanthropus dawsoni_.
The man got around; he was a lawyer(!). Part of his motivation for
participating in the hoax seems to have been to be elected into the Royal
Society, which had previously turned him down despite the splendid
collection of fossils he had assembled.
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