Question
How does Woodward's model fit with people's expectations of how early humans looked?
Piltdown man
Everyone was eager to know just what the 'missing link' had looked like. Click on the picture to see how the Piltdown scientists reconstructed the skull of Piltdown Man. How does it compare with the reconstruction we might come up with now?
1. Skull reconstruction | Woodward's reconstruction
Woodward's reconstruction
The Natural History Museum
Woodward set about carefully studying the jaw and the nine pieces of human skull in order to piece them together and reconstruct the skull of Piltdown Man. The job wasn't easy. With half the right-hand side of the face and left jaw missing, there was lots of room for different interpretations. Like many scientists at this time, Woodward was convinced that our large brain had developed quickly from apes but that our jaws lagged behind, leaving early humans with larger ape-like jaws.
This is Woodward's reconstructed skull of Piltdown Man. Compare it to the skulls below and what scientists knew about our ancestors at this time.
Skulls from our ancestors and ape relatives
© The Natural History Museum
1. Homo erectus - thought to have existed around 500,000 years ago
2. Neanderthal - lived up to 250,000 years ago
3. Orang-utan - our ape relative
4. Homo sapiens - modern human
References
- Human Evolution:
Walking with Cavemen at the BBC - Becoming Human:
an interactive journey through human evolution from the Institute of Human origins - Hunting Hominids:
human evolution from the Discovery Channel - Human origins:
the Smithsonian Institution Human origins Program
