Image source: Lartet, Édouard, and Henry Christy. Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ. London: Williams & Norgate, 1875, pl. B. 28.

Blade and Bone

The Discovery of Human Antiquity

The Taung Skull, 1925

Dart, Raymond. "Australopithecus africanus: The Man-Ape of South Africa.” Nature, 1925, 115:195-199.

Skull of Australopithecus. Image source: Dart, Raymond. ”Australopithecus africanus: The Man-Ape of South Africa.” Nature, vol. 115, Feb. 7, 1925, p. 195. 

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In 1924, Raymond Dart, a professor of anatomy in South Africa, received a fossilized primate skull from a limestone quarry at Taungs. Dart recognized that the fossil was not a baboon, because it had human-like teeth, and a spinal opening that suggested it was a biped. Moreover, it came with a brain cast (endocranial cast in technical terms) defining a brain that was much more like that of an anthropoid ape or a primitive human. Dart concluded that he had found a fossil that was intermediate between living great apes and humans, and was possibly pre-human. His announcement was not well received by the anthropology establishment, and Australopithecus would not be accepted as a valid genus until the 1950s. But Dart did implant the suggestion that perhaps anthropologists should turn to Africa to search for the origins of humankind.

Skull comparison of Australopithecus with gorilla and chimpanzee. Image source: Dart, Raymond. ”Australopithecus africanus: The Man-Ape of South Africa.” Nature, vol. 115, Feb. 7, 1925, p. 196. 

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Raymond’s announcement. Image source: Dart, Raymond. ”Australopithecus africanus: The Man-Ape of South Africa.” Nature, vol. 115, Feb. 7, 1925, p. 195. 

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