Kenneth Oakley, (born April 7, 1911, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, Eng.—died Nov. 2, 1981, Amersham), English physical anthropologist, geologist, and paleontologist best known for his work in the relative dating of fossils by fluorine content.
Oakley received a B.S. in geology with first-class honours from University College, London, in 1933, and a Ph.D. from the same institution in 1938. He was long associated with the British Museum of Natural History (1935–69), from which he retired in 1969. He won renown in 1953 when he played a decisive role in the exposure of the Piltdown hoax. The famous Piltdown man, remains of a skull found in a ditch in Sussex, England, had been unchallenged as the missing link between man and ape since its discovery in 1912. By applying his fluorine-dating method, Oakley confirmed that the remains were fraudulent. His other interests were archaeology and folklore, with a chief focus on the culture of fossil man from the paleontological viewpoint. Oakley did fieldwork in eastern and southern Africa.
Among his books are Man the Toolmaker (1949), Frameworks for Dating Fossil Man (1964), and Relative Dating of the Fossil Hominids of Europe (1980).