In order to prove Dawson and Woodward really had found the earliest human ever discovered, they needed to work out the age of the bones. Click on the picture to find out how they did it. Compare it with the techniques scientists would use today.
Beaver tooth (upper molar)
©The Natural History Museum
Most mammals can be identified easily from their teeth. When Dawson and Woodward discovered 15 fragments of mammal teeth at Piltdown, they must have been delighted. For every animal identified, there were several tooth fragments, so that although the individual fragments were small, there was no doubt about which animals had been present at Piltdown.
Imagine you have just found the bones of the oldest human ever discovered, together with an exceptional number of mammal teeth that could tell you when your human existed. Is your discovery too good to be true? Or do the mammal teeth just confirm that you really have found the missing link?
