Final answer:
The Piltdown specimen was a fraudulent fossil made from the mixed parts of a human skull and an orangutan's jaw. It was intended to be a supposed 'missing link' in human evolution but was later exposed as a hoax. Accurate anatomical analysis is crucial in paleoanthropology to avoid such deceptions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Piltdown specimen was a fraudulent fossil composed of the lower jawbone of an orangutan deliberately combined with the skull of a fully modern human. This mixture was intended to create a convincing 'missing link' in human evolution. It was claimed to be an early hominin fossil and misled the scientific community for many years before being exposed as a hoax.
The Piltdown hoax highlights the importance of anatomical evidence in paleoanthropology and how the accurate interpretation of traits like teeth, skulls, and postcranial elements is critical for understanding human evolution. Paleoanthropologists now rely on extensive comparison and technological tools such as SEM (scanning electron microscopy) to detect minute details in fossils and reconstruct the diets and lifestyles of extinct hominins.
Real anatomical fossils, such as those from the Taung child (Australopithecus africanus), Paranthropus robustus, and Homo antecessor, present a diverse picture of hominin evolution, displaying a range of features from the size and morphology of teeth and skulls to aspects of postcranial anatomy that inform us about bipedalism and locomotion.