[3] It remained at the homestead until 1914 when Professor Edgeworth David, Professor of Archaeology at Sydney University visited Talgai and presented a theory that the skull was 20,000 years old and provided a "missing link" in the evolutionary chain.
This sudden change in attitude towards the skull was motivated in part by the recent "discovery" of the Piltdown Man fossils in England.
Although later proven to be hoax, the Piltdown find encouraged others to search for similar evidence of early man.
[4] Severe cracks in the skull led some observers to conclude that a blow to the head had been the cause of death.
However, later investigation showed that the cracks were produced by expansion and contraction of the clay soil where the skull was found.