The evidence was manufactured.
A false ancestor, a buried giant and a constructed mermaid. Here the fabrication is the finding, and the objects preserve the means by which it was done.
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SOMETIMES THE FABRICATION IS IN THE RECORD.The two Piltdown pieces date 350 years apart with 172 years of combined error, a gap of 2.03 combined-error units. They never belonged together.
Compare the published cranial determinations
02The carving removed 7,010 lb of gypsum, 70.1% of the starting block and about 35.05 loads of waste. The workshop left a documented paper trail.
Account for the gypsum removed
03The join covers 1.59 pixels at an image scale of 0.63 mm/pixel, and resolving it would need 1,134 pixels. The specimen's construction is documented regardless.
Plan the detail needed to inspect a join
Skull fragments and an ape-like jaw were presented together as an early human ancestor.
02A large human-shaped object was dug out of the ground at Cardiff in New York.
03A preserved creature in the Peabody collection combines a humanoid upper body with a fish-like tail.
Skull fragments and an ape-like jaw were presented together as an early human ancestor.
The material belonged to a single evolutionary missing link.
The assemblage combined human remains with orangutan material. Teeth had been filed and bones artificially stained. Tests exposed the mismatch; later imaging and genetic work traced the preparation of the forged evidence.
Read the full investigationA large human-shaped object was dug out of the ground at Cardiff in New York.
The discovery was a petrified giant.
The figure had been carved from gypsum, shipped to the site and buried before its arranged discovery. The excavation was part of the deception. The surviving object is the manufactured evidence itself.
Read the full investigationA preserved creature in the Peabody collection combines a humanoid upper body with a fish-like tail.
The specimen demonstrates that mermaids exist.
The museum’s specimen is a composite made with animal parts, clay and papier-mâché. It is one of several Feejee mermaid constructions; its presence in a collection records the fabrication rather than a marine species.
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