In the October issue of PalNews (Thackeray, 2023) I presented a scenario to try to reach closure on the “Piltdown Case”, involving a hoax (intended as a joke) whereby fragments of a human skull (stained brown) were buried together with a broken jaw of an orangutan (also stained brown) at Piltdown in England in 1912, constituting “Eoanthropus dawsoni (Woodward, 1912)”. Here I present an Addendum regarding the joke that went seriously wrong after it had been accepted by palaeontologists as a genuine “ape-man” with a large brain but an ape-like jaw.

The “Piltdown Case” relates to an English hoax or joke in which someone at Piltdown in Sussex buried an unusual human skull (stained brown) with a modified orangutan jaw (also stained brown), to look as if the relatively modern specimens represented a fossilised “ape-man”, apparently associated with the fossilised bones and teeth of animals known to have existed more than a million years ago. This Piltdown Man “fossil” was discovered in 1912, and announced with much acclaim at the end of the year in London as Eoanthropus, the “Dawn Man”, otherwise referred to as “The Earliest Englishman”. 

​Southern African palaeontology is currently mourning the loss of one of its greats. We are dedicating this #FossilFriday to Charles K. 'Bob' Brain. 

​CK (Bob) Brain passed away peacefully on June 6th at his home in Irene. He was a founder member of the PSSA, Honorary Life Member and also the first President of the Society.

​In his 1977 thesis, James Kitching reported the discovery of a Triassic therocephalian (NMQR389) at a farm he called Oranje, in the Bethulie District. This therocephalian was subsequently re-identified by Dr. Christian Kammerer as a gorgonopsian. If the Triassic age of the outcrops is confirmed, this Triassic gorgonopsian would be an extremely rare occurence, as it would mean it survived the “Great Dying”, 252 million years ago. There are two farms in the Bethulie area that may correspond to Kitching’s Oranje: Orangia, near Donovan’s Kop in the Bethulie District, which is a wellknown Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone locality, and Oranje in the Phillipolis District.