>>Here’s an example: the work of finding, recovering & identifying fossils has occupied many thousands of researchers over many, many decades.
Each researcher hopes to find a fossil which will upset, overturn & rewrite existing understandings of our past, and some actually do.
Those become famous and often enjoy a long rewarding career.
That’s how science is supposed to work. <<
“Piltdown Man” was a (the?) triumph of the Scientific Method. It failed under proper scrutiny.
Proper scientific procedure eventually caught and exposed the Piltdown man. Very poor example!