Possibly the area of the evolution debate that most impacts human perception is the origin of humanity. Evolutionists propose that humans evolved from an ape-like creature and shares a relatively close common ancestor with the apes. They have found many fossils which they claim support their view (of course, what's a paleontologist who doesn't make that unique find?). Some have long been repudiated by evolutionists, though I'll mention a few of those below as well because of their historical impact in people's perceptions.
Java Man (Pithecanthropus erectus/Homo erectus) was discovered in Trinil on the Dutch East Indian island of Java in either 1887 or 1891 (my sources differ on this) by Dr. Eugene Dubois. The discovery consisted of a skullcap, a femur, and three molars. Two skulls known as the Wadjak skulls (fully human) were found in close proximity in the same strata. More bones for Java Man were located a year later. There's no evidence at all that all of the bones were even to the same creature.
Peking Man (Sinanthropus pekinensis) was discovered at on Chou K'ouTien ("Dragon-Bone Hill") 25 miles from Peking, China, in 1921 by Dr. Davidson Black. The initial find consisted of two teeth, and more bones were uncovered over the following years until fourteen skulls and an assorted collection of tools and teeth had been discovered. All of the skulls had been bashed in at the base, and the lower skeletons were missing. Natives in that region eat monkey brains by bashing in the skulls and scooping out the brains. It's more than likely that the tools were used on Peking Man, not by him. Also, bones of ordinary humans were found in the same quarry.
Nebraska Man (Hesperopithecus haroldcookii) was a find made in Nebraska in 1922 by Harold Cook consisting of a single tooth. Somehow, evolutionists created a hypothetical reconstruction of Nebraska Man from the tooth. The tooth turned out to belong to Catagonus wagneri, a sort of wild pig.
Piltdown man (Pithecanthropus erectus/Homo erectus) was found in 1912 near Piltdown, England, by Charles Dawson. It turned out to be a horrific hoax, in which an orangutan jaw was stained with bichromate of potash to match a human skull. The fraud was discovered in 1953 after being touted by world experts as "proof" of evolution for decades. Such confirmation in evolutionists' pronouncements...
Ramapithecus was "dated" to 12-17 Ma, and the fossil find (located in India in the 1930s) consisted of a two-inch-long piece of jawbone. A complete jawbone found in 1976 was clearly non-hominid, and Ramapithecus is now considered a member of Sivapithecus, relatives of the orangutan.
The "ape-man" specimen (Zinjanthropus bosei/Australopithecus) found at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, in 1959 by Louis Leakey was "dated" to between 1.8-4 Ma. It is now classified as an australopithecine, adn they have been removed from the line of man's descent by Richard Leakey.
Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis or africanus) is a rather famous example. Lucy was discovered by Donald Johansen in Ethiopia in 1974. The focus of debate was Lucy's knee joint, which evolutionists claimed demonstrated that Lucy walked upright in a manner transitional between humans and apes. Of course, certain tree-dwelling chimps have the same knee joint angle as Lucy. During a lecture at the University of Missouri on 20 November 1986, Johansen declared that the knee joint had been discovered a mile away and 200 feet down from the rest of the skeleton. Many people have said that Lucy appears to be merely a variety of pygmy chimp, and at least two finds of upright-walking people (the Kanapoi hominid and Castenedolo Man) are "dated" prior to Lucy.
The Kanapoi hominid (Australopithecus anamensis) was discovered at Kanapoi, Kenya, in 1965 and given the designation KP 271. The initial find consisted of a fragment of humerus, and it was "dated" at 4.5 Ma, though it was indistinguishable from modern humans. The early date is the only reason for the classification as australopithecine.
1470 man (Homo habilis) was a skull discovered in Kenya by Richard Leakey and "dated" at 2.8-2.9 Ma. Likewise, the layer of volcanic ash above the skull's stratum was "dated" to 2.6 Ma. Skull 1470 possessed a cranial capacity within the range of modern humans, and Leakey said that we could either toss out the skull or toss out our theories of early man. The radioactive "dates" were eventually thrown out in favor of fission-track "dates" of 1.9 Ma.
Mary Leakey, in a place called Laetoli in Africa, found several sets of prints. At site A, the prints match up with those of a young Himalayan black bear. At site G, the prints are indistinguishable from those of habitually unshod modern humans, as testified by the expert Dr. Russell Tuttle. However, as they are "dated" to 3.5-3.7 Ma, they are attributed to Australopithecus afarensis, despite them being identical to modern humanity.
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