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The Piltdown fossils were discovered in 1911 and 1912 by workers digging in a pit in England. Upon examination, they were hailed by scientists as a discovery of immense significance - the much sought-after missing link between man and apes in the evolutionary tree.
It took nearly 50 years before the specimen was proven to be less than genuine. The fossil consisted of a jawbone from an orangutan which had been treated with chemicals to make it look aged, while the skull was a real fossil, but much younger than originally thought.
