Piltdown Man
In 1912, Charles Dawson, an amateur archaeologist, claimed to have discovered fossilized remains of an early human in a gravel pit at Piltdown, East Sussex, England. These remains included a skull, jawbone, and other fragments.
The find was initially celebrated as a significant discovery, seemingly providing evidence of a "missing link" between apes and humans. It was named Eoanthropus dawsoni in honor of Dawson.
In 1953, extensive testing using modern scientific techniques revealed that the Piltdown Man was a forgery. An intensive study of the remains showed that they were made up of a modern human cranium–no more than 600 years old; the jaw and teeth of an orangutan; and the tooth of a chimpanzee.

Scram