ABSTRACT
British geologist and paleontologist. On graduating from University College, London, in 1933, Oakley went to work as a geologist with the British Geological Survey. Two years later, he joined the Department of Palaeontology of the British Museum (Natural History), where he spent the rest of his career. As a result of his former connection with the Geological Survey, Oakley developed a consuming interest in vertebrate paleontology, especially paleoanthropology. He later acquired an international reputation for his work on analytical methods of dating bones, particularly the technique of fluorine dating. The application of this technique to bones in the Piltdown faunal assemblage contributed to the eventual exposure of the forgery, and it was also used to demonstrate that the Galley Hill and Bury St. Edmunds crania were not of Middle Pleistocene age as previously contended. Oakley produced a number of popular and technical books, including Man the Toolmaker (1949) and Frameworks for Dating Fossil Man(1964).
