Editing Piltdown Man (section)

===Influence===
The Piltdown Man fraud significantly affected early research on human evolution.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/science-of-natural-history/the-scientific-process/piltdown-man-hoax/ |title=Natural History Museum: "Piltdown Man – the greatest hoax in the history of science?" |access-date=9 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524111732/http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/science-of-natural-history/the-scientific-process/piltdown-man-hoax/ |archive-date=24 May 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> Notably, it led scientists down a [[cul-de-sac#Other uses|blind alley]] in the belief that the human brain expanded in size before the jaw adapted to new types of food. Discoveries of [[Australopithecine]] fossils such as the [[Taung child]] found by [[Raymond Dart]] during the 1920s in South Africa were ignored because of the support for Piltdown Man as "the missing link," and the reconstruction of human evolution was confused for decades. The examination and debate over Piltdown Man caused a vast expenditure of time and effort on the fossil, with an estimated 250+ papers written on the topic.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Washburn|first=S.L.|year=1953|title=The Piltdown Hoax|url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1525/aa.1953.55.5.02a00340/asset/aa.1953.55.5.02a00340.pdf;jsessionid=00BC7B49DABDD1C005CB6E298CD43BC8.f04t03?v=1&t=j32b9i78&s=533537981e76f853148d65977fda7ce9d9b3605f|journal=American Anthropologist|volume=55|issue=5|pages=759–62|via=Wiley Online Library|doi=10.1525/aa.1953.55.5.02a00340|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The book ''[[Scientology: A History of Man]]'' by [[L. Ron Hubbard]] features the Piltdown Man as a phase of biological history capable of leaving a person with subconscious memories of traumatic incidents that can only be resolved by use of Scientology technology. Recovered "memories" of this phase are prompted by one's obsession with biting, hiding the teeth or mouth, and early familial issues. Nominally, this appears to be related to the large jaw of the Piltdown Man specimen. The book was first published in 1952, shortly before the fraud was confirmed, and has since been republished 5 times (most recently in 2007).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/explore-the-phoenix-roots-of-l-ron-hubbard-and-scientology-6455537 |title=Explore the Phoenix Roots of L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology &#124; Phoenix New Times |access-date=2021-07-07 |archive-date=2016-03-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315070110/http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/explore-the-phoenix-roots-of-l-ron-hubbard-and-scientology-6455537 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Creationism|Creationists]] often cite the hoax (along with [[Nebraska Man]]) as evidence of an alleged dishonesty of paleontologists who study human evolution, although scientists themselves had exposed the Piltdown hoax (and the Nebraska Man incident was not a deliberate fraud).<ref name=talkorg>{{cite web|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/piltdown.html|title=Creationist Arguments: Piltdown Man|last=Harter|first=Richard|year=1997|access-date=29 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070820030207/http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/piltdown.html|archive-date=20 August 2007|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_expose/piltdown_hoax.html|last=Caroll|first=Robert Todd|title=Piltdown Hoax|access-date=29 August 2007|year=1996|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071113003421/http://www.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_expose/piltdown_hoax.html|archive-date=13 November 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> In November 2003, the Natural History Museum in London held an exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary of the exposure of the fraud.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/corporate-information/annual-reports/report/report2004/text/ouryear.html|title=The Natural History Museum Annual Review 2003/2004|access-date=17 November 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20051105143956/http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/corporate-information/annual-reports/report/report2004/text/ouryear.html |archive-date= 5 November 2005}}</ref>