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105-650: The Taung Child (or Taung Baby ) is the fossilised skull of a young Australopithecus africanus . It was discovered in 1924 by quarrymen working for the Northern Lime Company in Taung , South Africa . Raymond Dart described it as a new species in the journal Nature in 1925. The Taung skull is in repository at the University of Witwatersrand . Dean Falk , a specialist in brain evolution , has called it "the most important anthropological fossil of

210-648: A nomen nudum ("naked name"), and has not been properly described with diagnostic characteristics which separate it from A. africanus . At the time, these remains were dated to 3.3 million years ago in the Late Pliocene . In 2019, Clarke and South African palaeoanthropologist Kathleen Kuman redated StW 573 to 3.67 million years ago, making it the oldest Australopithecus specimen from South Africa. They considered its antiquity further evidence of species distinction, drawing parallels with A. anamensis and A. afarensis from Middle Pliocene East Africa. Little foot

315-403: A Holocephalan , some 300 million years old. Endocast fossils from animals with shells that easily disintegrate or dissolve can often be encountered free from their mold fossil, like the aragonite shells of certain molluscs and the tests of sea urchins . A frequently occurring form is the internal mold of brachiopods and bivalves . In the quite symmetrical genus brachiopod Pentamerus ,

420-613: A gallery forest surrounded by more open grasslands or bushlands. South African australopithecine remains probably accumulated in caves due to predation by large carnivores (namely big cats ), and the Taung child appears to have been killed by a bird of prey . A. africanus probably went extinct due to major climatic variability and volatility and possibly competition with Homo and P. robustus . In 1924, Australian anatomist Professor Raymond Dart , since 1923 working in South-Africa,

525-456: A prognathic jaw (it jutted out), a somewhat dished face (the cheek were inflated, causing the nose to be at the bottom of a dip), and a defined brow ridge. The temporal lines running across either side of the braincase are raised as small crests. The canines are reduced in size compared to non-human apes, though still notably bigger than those of modern humans. Like other early hominins, the cheek teeth are large and feature thick enamel . In

630-428: A balloon and pulled out through the foramen magnum . Rubber endocasts like these were the standard practice until the end of the 20th century and are still used in some fields. However, scientists are increasingly utilizing computerized tomography scanning technology to create digital endocasts in order to avoid risking damage to valuable specimens. Natural cranial endocasts are also known. The famous Taung Child ,

735-413: A consulting geologist, Robert Young, paid a visit to the quarry office, the director, A. E. Speirs, presented him with a collection of fossilised primate skulls that had been gathered by a miner, Mr. De Bruyn. A. E. Speirs was using a particular fossil as a paperweight, and Young asked him for this as well. Young sent some of the skulls back to Dart. When Dart examined the contents of the crate, he found

840-551: A couple tens of kilometres according to Dart. The East African remains would be split off into A. afarensis in 1978. In 2008, palaeoanthropologist Ronald J. Clarke recommended reviving " A. prometheus " to house the StW 573 nearly-complete skeleton (" Little Foot "), StS 71 cranium, StW 505 cranium, StW 183 maxilla , StW 498 maxilla and jawbone, StW 384 jawbone, StS 1 palate , and MLD 2. In 2018, palaeoanthropologists Lee Rogers Berger and John D. Hawks considered " A. prometheus "

945-532: A fossilized endocast of a skull showing the impression of a complex brain. He quickly searched through the rest of the fossils in the crates, and matched it to a fossilized skull of a juvenile primate, which had a shallow face and fairly small teeth. Only forty days after he first saw the fossil, Dart completed a paper that named the species of Australopithecus africanus , the "southern ape from Africa", and described it as "an extinct race of apes intermediate between living anthropoids and man". The paper appeared in

1050-585: A human ancestor. In 1947, the most complete skull was discovered, STS 5 (" Mrs. Ples "). Wider acceptance of A. africanus prompted re-evaluation of Piltdown Man in 1953, revealing its falsehood. In 1949, Dart recommended splitting a presumed-female facial fragment from Makapansgat , South Africa, (MLD 2) into a new species as " A. prometheus ". In 1954, he referred another presumed-female specimen from Makapansgat (a jawbone fragment). However, in 1953, South African palaeontologist John Talbot Robinson believed that splitting species and genera on such fine hairs

1155-415: A human, they would have been aged around 5–7 years old. The skull has a cranial capacity of 400–500 cc, which is comparable to that of a modern adult chimpanzee. Because mature brain size is attained within the first few years of life, the relatively small size is unlikely to be attributed to the specimen being a juvenile. The skull also possesses features more commonly found in humans than apes, including

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1260-415: A hundred natural casts of the cranial vault of Bathygenys (a small merycodont ) alone are known, some having identifiable features down to the major gyri . Several hundred casts of various dinosaurs are known, among them a Tyrannosaurus brain vault, showing the animal had limited intelligence and a well-developed sense of smell. The oldest known natural cranial endocast is a fossil fish brain from

1365-674: A new species, " A. transvaalensis ", and in 1938 moved it into a new genus as " Plesianthropus transvaalensis ". He also discovered the robust australopithecine Paranthropus robustus , showing evidence of a wide diversity of Early Pleistocene "man-apes". Before World War II , several more sites bore A. africanus fossils. A detailed monograph by Broom and palaeoanthropologist Gerrit Willem Hendrik Schepers in 1946 regarding these australopithecines from South Africa, as well as several papers by British palaeoanthropologist Sir Wilfrid Le Gros Clark , had turned around scientific opinion, garnering wide support for A. africanus ' classification as

1470-527: A newer endocast specimen title Stw 505 has been examined, and many believe that it supports Dart's hypothesis, but this aspect of Taung is still highly debated, and many still believe it has ape-like placement. Subsequently, Falk unearthed an unpublished manuscript that Dart completed in 1929 in the Archives of the University of Witwatersrand, which provides a much more thorough description and analysis of

1575-474: A non-rotational birth (unlike humans), though this is debated. When standing, the angle between the sacrum and the lumbar vertebrae was reconstructed to have been about 148.7°, which is much more similar to that of chimps (154.6°) than humans (118.3°). This would indicate A. africanus standing posture was not as erect as in humans. The A. africanus hand and arm exhibit a mosaic anatomy, with some aspects more similar to humans and others to non-human apes. It

1680-494: A range of 22.8–43.3 kg (50–95 lb) for weight based on 19 specimens. Based on seven specimens, McHenry estimated that males, on average, grew to 138 cm (4 ft 6 in) tall and females 125 cm (4 ft 1 in). In 2017, based on 24 specimens, anthropologist Manuel Will and colleagues estimated a height of 124.4 cm (4 ft 1 in) with a range of 110–142 cm (3 ft 7 in – 4 ft 8 in). The elderly, probably female StW 573

1785-464: A result, many bones began to build up in these areas. These areas were mostly sandstone, and they stood in the way of successful mining. So, miners would use explosives to clear these areas, and discard all the debris. However, many fossils began to show up, and these were saved by many of the miners. Many were of extinct fauna, which included baboons and other primates, and the more complete or somehow more interesting fossils were kept as curiosities by

1890-404: A rising forehead and round eye sockets. Although the lower portion of the nose resembles a chimpanzee, the overall shorter shape is human-like. Likewise, the lower portion of the face is protruded, though to a lesser degree than in modern apes. A bony shelf found within the inner jaw of apes could not be found. Dart opted to describe the remains as a "man-ape" rather than as an "ape-man" to highlight

1995-458: A role. Scratches, gouges, and puncture marks on the Taung child similar to those inflicted by modern crowned eagles indicate this individual was killed by a bird of prey . Around 2.07 million years ago, just before the arrival of P. robustus and H. erectus , A. africanus became extinct in the Cradle of Humankind. It is possible that South Africa was a refuge for Australopithecus until

2100-407: A sample of ten A. africanus specimens, seven exhibited mild to moderate alveolar bone loss resulting from periodontal disease (the wearing away of the bone which supports the teeth due to gum disease). The juvenile specimen STS 24a was diagnosed with an extreme case of periodontal disease on the right side of the mouth, which caused pathological bone growth around the affected site, and movement of

2205-491: A small brain size yet was, as shown by the position of the foramen magnum , bipedal . Dart, after hastily freeing the fossil from its matrix, already in January 1925 named the specimen as a new genus and species: Australopithecus africanus . At the time of discovery, great apes were classified into the family Pongidae encompassing all non-human fossil apes, and Hominidae encompassing humans and ancestors. Dart felt

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2310-418: A team including Clarke and Kuman used cosmogenic nuclide techniques to date Member 4 at 3.4 million years, which it says discredits the assumption that A. africanus descended from A. afarensis . However, given the wide range of variation exhibited by these specimens, it is debated if all these elements can be confidently assigned to only A. africanus . At present, the classification of australopithecines

2415-422: A wider public. On that day, Keith, who had been one of Dart's most virulent critics, composed a letter to the editor of Nature announcing that he supported Clark's analysis: "I was one of those who took the point of view that when the adult form [of Australopithecus ] was discovered it would prove to be near akin to the living African anthropoids—the gorilla and the chimpanzee. I am now convinced... that Prof. Dart

2520-497: Is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived between about 3.3 and 2.1 million years ago in the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of South Africa . The species has been recovered from Taung , Sterkfontein , Makapansgat , and Gladysvale . The first specimen, the Taung child , was described by anatomist Raymond Dart in 1924, and was the first early hominin found. However, its closer relations to humans than to other apes would not become widely accepted until

2625-586: Is an indication of bipedal locomotion. Dean Falk , a specialist in neuroanatomy, noted that Dart had not fully considered certain apelike attributes for Taung. In his 1925 article, Dart had claimed that the brain of Taung was humanlike. As it turned out, he was wrong about that.... Taung's humanlike features were overemphasized. This mainly pertains to the lunate sulcas , which Dart had described as having human-like placement, Upon further examination however, Falk determined that these patterns were much more similar to that of an ape's similar sized brain. This however

2730-622: Is caused by seasonal famine when a child has to rely on nursing to sustain themselves and less desirable fallback foods. However, it is unclear if this can be extended to A. africanus . The group dynamics of australopithecines is difficult to predict with any degree of accuracy. A 2011 strontium isotope study of A. africanus teeth from the dolomite Sterkfontein Valley found that, assuming that especially small teeth represented female specimens and especially large teeth males, females were more likely to leave their place of birth ( patrilocal ). This

2835-522: Is controversially suggested that it and similar specimens be split off into " A. prometheus ". A. africanus brain volume was about 420–510 cc (26–31 cu in). Like other early hominins, the cheek teeth were enlarged and had thick enamel . Male skulls may have been more robust than female skulls. Males may have been on average 140 cm (4 ft 7 in) in height and 40 kg (88 lb) in weight, and females 125 cm (4 ft 1 in) and 30 kg (66 lb). A. africanus

2940-530: Is in disarray. Australopithecus is considered a grade taxon , whose members are united by their similar physiology rather than close relations with each other over other hominin genera. It is unclear how A. africanus relates to other hominins. The discovery of Early Pleistocene Homo in Africa during the latter half of the 20th century placed humanity's origins on the continent and A. africanus as ancestral to Homo . The discovery of A. afarensis in 1978, at

3045-434: Is more similar to non-human apes and indicates greater mobility to swivel up and down than in humans. Such motion is important for arboreal species to locate and focus on climbable surfaces. The StW 573 atlas shows similar mechanical advantages for the muscles which move the shoulder girdle as chimps and gorillas , which may indicate less lordosis (normal curvature of the spine) in A. africanus neck vertebrae. However,

3150-474: Is no concrete place on the brain where they can place these features. Paleoneurologists have been tasked with looking at various depressions in the brain and attempting to determine what they are. These scientists are often met with skepticism, just as Falk in her continued support of an ape-like placement of the lunate sulcas. However, now many professionals believe that the sulcas is not visible in Taung and many other Australopithecus africanus specimens. However,

3255-415: Is not associated with any tools. A. africanus conspicuously lacks evidence of dental cavities , whereas P. robustus seems to have had a modern humanlike cavity rate; this could possibly indicate that A. africanus either did not often consume high-sugar cavity-causing foods—such as fruit, honey, and some nuts and seeds—or frequently consumed gritty foods which decrease cavity incidence rate. However,

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3360-558: Is similar to the dispersal patterns of modern-day hominins which have a multi-male kinship-based society, as opposed to the harem society of gorillas and other primates. However, the small canines of males compared to those of females would seem to suggest a much lower degree of male–male aggression than non-human hominins. Males did not seem to have ventured very far from the valley, which could either indicate small home ranges, or that they preferred dolomitic landscapes due to perhaps cave abundance or factors related to vegetation growth. In

3465-643: Is the most complete early hominin skeleton ever recovered, with about 90% preserved. In addition to Taung, Sterkfontein, and Makapansgat, A. africanus was in 1992 discovered in Gladysvale Cave. The latter three are in the Cradle of Humankind . Many hominin specimens traditionally assigned to A. africanus have been recovered from Sterkfontein Member 4 (including Mrs. Ples and 2 partial skeletons), previously dated to 2.8 to 2.15 million years ago. But in 2022

3570-635: Is typically attributed to moderate to high levels of sexual dimorphism in that males were more robust than females. In 1992, American anthropologist Henry McHenry estimated an average weight (when assuming humanlike or apelike body proportions, respectively) of 40.8 or 52.8 kg (90 or 116 lb) for males based on five partial leg specimens, and 30.2 or 36.8 kg (67 or 81 lb) for females based on seven specimens. In 2015, American anthropologist William L. Jungers and colleagues similarly reported an average weight (without attempting to distinguish males from females) of 30.7 kg (68 lb) with

3675-406: Is unclear if this means australopiths were still arboreal to a degree, or if these traits were simply inherited from the human–chimpanzee last common ancestor . Nonetheless, A. africanus exhibits a more ape-like upper limb anatomy than A. afarensis , and is typically interpreted as having been, to some extent, arboreal. Like in arboreal primates, the fingers are curved, the arms relatively long and

3780-462: The Congolian rainforests , so its presence could potentially mean the area was an extension of this rainforest. The wildlife assemblages indicate a mix of habitats such as bush savanna , open woodland , or grassland. The shrub Anastrabe integerrima was also found, which today only grows on the wetter South African coastline. This could indicate the Cradle of Humankind received more rainfall in

3885-412: The long bones , teeth, and horns of large hoofed prey: On this thesis man's predecessors differed from living apes in being confirmed killers: carnivorous creatures, that seized living quarries by violence, battered them to death, tore apart their broken bodies, dismembered them limb from limb, slaking their ravenous thirst with the hot blood of victims and greedily devouring livid writhing flesh. Broom

3990-459: The 2nd right permanent incisor (STW 270) and right canine (STW 213) from the same individual show lesions consistent with acid erosion , which indicates this individual was regularly biting into acidic foods such as citrus. Tubers could have caused the same damage if some chewing was done by the front teeth. Barium continually deposits onto A. africanus teeth until about 6–9 months of development, and then decreases until about 12 months. Because

4095-537: The 7 February 1925 issue of the journal Nature . The fossil was soon nicknamed the Taung Child. Scientists were initially reluctant to accept that the Taung Child and the new genus Australopithecus were ancestral to modern humans. In the issue of Nature immediately following the one in which Dart's paper was published, several authorities in British paleoanthropology criticized Dart's conclusion. Three of

4200-550: The Cradle of Humankind, perhaps contemporaneously. A. sediba is also postulated to have been ancestral to Homo , which if correct would indeed put A. africanus in an ancestral position to Homo . Based on 4 specimens, the A. africanus brain volume averaged about 420–510 cc (26–31 cu in). Based on this, neonatal brain size was estimated to have been 165.5–190 cc (10.10–11.59 cu in) using trends seen in adult and neonate brain size in modern primates. If correct, this would indicate that A. africanus

4305-661: The Europeans who managed operations. In 1924, workers at the Buxton Limeworks, near Taung, showed a fossilized primate skull to Edwin Gilbert Izod, the visiting director of the Northern Lime Company, the managing company of the quarry. The director gave it to his son, Pat Izod, who displayed it on the mantle over the fireplace. When Josephine Salmons, a friend of the Izod family, paid a visit to Pat's home, she noticed

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4410-919: The Plio-Pleistocene. In total, the Cradle of Humankind may have featured gallery forests surrounded by grasslands. Taung also appears to have featured a wet, closed environment. Australopithecines and early Homo likely preferred cooler conditions than later Homo , as there are no australopithecine sites that were below 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in elevation at the time of deposition. This would mean that, like chimps, they often inhabited areas with an average diurnal temperature of 25 °C (77 °F), dropping to 10 or 5 °C (50 or 41 °F) at night. In 1983, studying P. robustus remains, South African palaeontologist Charles Kimberlin Brain hypothesised that australopithecine bones accumulated in caves due to large carnivore activity, dragging in carcasses. He

4515-498: The Taung Child as having "little bearing" on the issue of "whether the direct ancestors of man are to be sought in Asia or Africa". The critiques became more fervent a few months later. Elliot Smith concluded that the Taung fossil was "essentially identical" to the skull of "the infant gorilla and chimpanzee". Infant apes appear more human like because of the "shape of their forehead and the lack of fully developed brow ridges". Addressing

4620-429: The Taung child as the transitional stage between apes and humans was at odds with the-then popular model of human evolution which held that large brain size and humanlike characteristics had developed rather early on, and that large brain size evolved before bipedalism. Resultantly, A. africanus was generally cast aside as a member of the gorilla or chimpanzee lineages, most notably by Sir Arthur Keith . This view

4725-509: The Taung child fit into neither, and erected the family "Homo-simiadæ" ("man-apes"). This family name was soon abandoned, and Dart proposed "Australopithecidae" in 1929. In 1933, South African palaeoanthropologist Robert Broom suggested moving A. africanus into Hominidae, which at the time contained only humans and their ancestors. A. africanus was the first evidence that humans evolved in Africa, as Charles Darwin had postulated in his 1871 The Descent of Man . However, Dart's claim of

4830-596: The Taung endocast than Dart's earlier announcement in Nature . This was barred from being published to Dart's dismay in 1931. It remains unpublished in these archives. In this writing, Falk discovered that she and Dart had come to similar conclusions surrounding the evolutionary process of the brain that Taung indicates. Whereas Dart had identified only two potential sulci on the Taung endocast in 1925, he identified and illustrated 14 additional sulci in this still-unpublished monograph. There, too, Dart detailed how Taung's endocast

4935-514: The acceptance of Dart's analysis of the Taung Child came in 1947, when the prominent British anthropologist Wilfrid Le Gros Clark announced that he supported it. Le Gros Clark, who would also play an important role in exposing the fraud of the Piltdown Man in 1953, visited Johannesburg in late 1946 to study Dart's Taung skull and Broom's adult fossils, with the intention of proving that they were only apes. After two weeks of studies and visiting

5040-441: The arm was 86.9% the length of the leg. She is the first and only early hominin specimen to definitively show that the arms were almost all long as the legs. Nonetheless, these proportion are more similar to humans than non-human apes, with humans at 64.5–78%, chimpanzees about 100%, gorillas 100–125%, and orangutans 135–150.9%. In 1954, Robinson proposed that A. africanus was a generalist omnivore whereas P. robustus

5145-433: The author "very ingeniously, but, it seems obvious, more or less artificially, endeavors to humanize the 'Australopithecus'. It is not known that this effort thus far has found favor with any other student who gave truly earnest and critical attention to the otherwise very interesting and important Taung relic." Far from the bones being objective facts to be judged as evidence, there was an established pattern of belief. There

5250-624: The barium was most likely sourced from breast milk, this probably reflects the weaning age. This is comparable to the human weaning age. Following this initial period, barium deposits stall and then restart cyclically every year for several years. In the first molar specimen StS 28 (from Sterkfontein), this occurred every 6–9 months, and in the lower canine specimen StS 51 every 4–6 months, and this carried on until 4–5 years of development. Lithium and strontium also deposit cyclically. Cyclical barium, lithium, and strontium bands occur in modern primates—for example, wild orangutans up to 9 years of age—which

5355-415: The beginning of major climatic variability and volatility, and, perhaps, competition with Homo and Paranthropus . Endocast Endocasts of the inside of the neurocranium (braincase) are often made in paleoanthropology to study brain structures and hemispheric specialization in extinct human ancestors . While an endocast can not directly reveal brain structure, it can allow scientists to gauge

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5460-488: The brachial index (the forearm to humerus ratio) is 82.8–86.2 (midway between chimpanzees and humans), which indicates a reduction in forearm length from the more ancient hominin Ardipithecus ramidus . The thumb and wrist indicate humanlike functionality with a precision grip and forceful opposition between the thumb and fingers. The adoption of such a grip is typically interpreted as an adaptation for tool making at

5565-432: The brain to support this claim. Dart's former mentor, Keith, one of the most prominent anatomists of his time, claimed that there was insufficient evidence to accept Dart's claim that Australopithecus was transitional between apes and humans. Grafton Elliot Smith stated that he needed more evidence and a larger picture of the skull before he could judge the significance of the new fossil. Arthur Smith Woodward dismissed

5670-409: The caves in which Broom had found his fossils (the Taung cave had been destroyed by miners soon after the discovery of the Taung skull), however, Clark became convinced that these fossils were hominids rather than pongids . In 1947, Keith published in Nature , announcing his support of Dart and Broom's research. He stated "the evidence submitted by Dr. Robert Broom and Professor Dart was right and I

5775-412: The claim that the fossil was "the missing link between ape and human", Keith stated in a letter to Nature that an examination of the casts... will satisfy geologists that this claim is preposterous. The skull is that of a young anthropoid ape... and showing so many points of affinity with the two living African anthropoids, the gorilla and chimpanzee, that there cannot be a moment's hesitation in placing

5880-576: The discovery of the Taung Child in Nature , Broom visited Dart in Johannesburg to see the fossil. After he became a paleontologist in 1933, Broom found adult fossils of Australopithecus africanus and discovered more robust fossils, which were eventually renamed Australopithecus robustus (AKA Paranthropus robustus ). Even after Dart chose to take a break from his work in anthropology, Broom undertook more excavations, and slowly began to find more Australopithecus africanus specimens that proved Dart

5985-558: The endocast resembles a vulva , giving these fossils the name Schamstein or Mutterstein ("shame stone" or "mother stone") in German , while some bivalve endocasts are traditionally known as heart-of-stone or bull hearts in Britain. The "Venus of Svinesund", an early Mesolithic Venus figurine from Norway , is a re-worked Ordovician bivalve endocast. Endocasts are also known to develop from snail shells and sea urchins, and even from

6090-454: The expense of efficient climbing and arboreal habitation. The leg bones clearly show that A. africanus habitually engaged in bipedal locomotion, though some aspects of the tibiae are apelike, which could indicate that the leg musculature had not been fully reorganised into the human condition. If correct, its functional implications are unclear. The trabecular bone at the hip joint is distinctly humanlike, which would be inconsistent with

6195-476: The eyes as well as a depression along the skull that is common in creatures that have been preyed upon by eagles. In the early 20th century, the workers at limestone quarries in Southern Africa routinely uncovered fossils from the tufa formations that they mined. The tufa did not form consistently, and over time cavities were left open and they became beneficial areas for animals to take shelter in. As

6300-473: The female spine to aid in walking upright while pregnant. The StS 14 partial skeleton preserves a rather complete pelvis . Like in the restored pelvis of the Lucy specimen ( A. afarensis ), the sacrum was relatively flat and orientated more towards the back than in humans, and the pelvic cavity had an overall platypelloid shape. This could indicate a broad birth canal compared to neonate head size, and thus

6405-458: The first Australopithecus found, consists of a natural endocast connected to the facial portion of the skull. It was the shape of the brain that allowed Raymond Dart to conclude that the fossil was that of a human relative rather than an extinct ape . Mammal endocasts are particularly useful, as they resemble the fresh brain with the dura mater in place. Such "fossil brains" are known from several hundred different mammal species. More than

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6510-473: The first two right molars during cyclical periods of bacterial infection and resultant inflammation. Similarly, the individual appears to have preferred to chew using the left side of the jaw. The periodontal disease would have severely hindered chewing, particularly in the last year of life, and the individual potentially may have relied on group members to survive for as long as it did. In 1992, anthropologists Geoffrey Raymond Fisk and Gabriele Macho interpreted

6615-408: The food chain. Nonetheless, the species had a highly variable diet, making it a generalist . It may have eaten lower quality, harder foods, such as nuts, in leaner times. To survive, children may have needed nursing during such periods until reaching perhaps 4 to 5 years of age. The species appears to have been patrifocal , with females more likely to leave the group than males. A. africanus lived in

6720-613: The fossil form in this living group. In 1926, a year after the publication of Dart's article, Aleš Hrdlička reviewed and approved German and Portuguese articles for the American Journal of Physical Anthropology . Both articles asserted that the Taung Child should not be placed within the human phylum due to a lack of justification for the classification. The next year, Hrdlička personally commented on another of Dart's articles, this time in Natural History , saying that

6825-570: The fossilisation process. Calcaneal fractures have been recorded in humans, and are present quite often in arboreal primates. South African australopithecines appear to have lived in an area with a wide range of habitats. At Sterkfontein, fossil wood belonging to the liana Dichapetalum cf. mombuttense was recovered. The only living member of this tree genus in South Africa is Dichapetalum cymosum , which grows in dense, humid gallery forests . In modern day, D. mombuttense only grows in

6930-485: The four scholars were members of the Piltdown Man committee: Sir Arthur Keith , Grafton Elliot Smith , and Sir Arthur Smith Woodward . They were much more skeptical about this fossil's place in evolutionary history, and believed it deserved to be categorized as a chimp or gorilla rather than a human ancestor. However, Dart still had the hesitant support of W.L.H. Duckworth, but he still asked for more information on

7035-648: The genus Homo had split from the great apes as long as 30 million years ago and so felt uneasy about accepting that humans had a small-brained, ape-like ancestor, like Australopithecus africanus , only two million years ago. Lastly, many people disputed the role of this fossil because of their religious affiliation. When Taung was first announced in February 1925, many anti-evolutionists began to rise up in protest of this fossil. Dart began receiving many threats from members of various religious communities that proclaimed his ideas blasphemous. Some were able to reconcile

7140-401: The great degrees of hip loading required in prolonged arboreal activity. The tibia met the foot at a similar angle as it does in humans, which is necessary for habitual bipedalism. Consequently, the ankle was not as adept for climbing activities as it is in non-human apes. However, the modern Congo Twa hunter–gatherers can achieve a chimp-like angle with the ankle while climbing trees due to

7245-490: The hoax of the Piltdown Man , which had a large brain and ape -like teeth. Expecting human ancestors to have evolved a large brain very early, they found that the Taung Child's small brain and human-like teeth made it an unlikely ancestor to modern humans. Secondly, until the 1940s, most anthropologists believed that humans had evolved in Asia, not in Africa. A third reason is that, despite accepting that modern humans had emerged by evolution, many anthropologists believed that

7350-477: The later StW 679 has some similarities to human atlases, which could potentially indicate gradual evolution away from the ape condition. StW 573 has a narrow thoracic inlet unlike A. afarensis and humans. The clavicle is proportionally quite long, with a similar absolute length to that of modern humans. Like in modern women, L3–L5 curve outwards in specimen StS 14, whereas these are straighter in StW 431 as in modern men. This probably reflects reinforcement of

7455-442: The left ankle bone Stw 363 as bearing evidence of a healed calcaneal fracture on the heel bone (which was not preserved), which they believed resulted from a fall from a tree. If correct, then the individual was able to survive for a long time despite losing a great deal of function in the left leg. However, they also noted that similar damage could potentially have also been inflicted by calcite deposition and crystallisation during

7560-420: The longer fibres in the gastrocnemius (calf) muscle instead of specific skeletal adaptations. Some aspects of the ankle bone were apelike which may have affected walking efficiency. The foot elements of A. africanus are largely known from remains from Sterkfontein Member 4. The foot is humanlike with a stiff midfoot and lack of a midtarsal break (which allows non-human apes to lift the heel independently from

7665-432: The middle of the century because most had believed humans evolved outside of Africa. It is unclear how A. africanus relates to other hominins, being variously placed as ancestral to Homo and Paranthropus , to just Paranthropus , or to just P. robustus . The specimen " Little Foot " is the most completely preserved early hominin, with 90% of the skeleton intact, and the oldest South African australopith. However, it

7770-413: The more human features present compared to the remains found of the more recent Pithecanthropus erectus . In 2006, Lee Berger announced the Taung Child probably was killed by an eagle or other large predatory bird, citing the similarity of the damage to the skull and eye sockets of the Taung Child to that seen in modern primates that are known to have been killed by eagles. There are talon marks in

7875-518: The origins of humanity. Gregory and Osborn repeatedly debated the issue in public forums, but Osborn's view that humans had evolved from early ancestors who did not look like apes prevailed among American anthropologists in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1938, Gregory visited South Africa and saw the Taung Child and the fossils that Broom had recently discovered. More convinced than ever that Dart and Broom were right, he called Australopithecus africanus "the missing link no longer missing". The turning point in

7980-481: The premolars, useful for eating small, hard objects such as seeds and nuts that need to be cracked open by the teeth, or for processing a large quantity of food at one time. However, like for P. robustus , microwear analysis on the cheek teeth indicate small, hard foods were infrequently eaten, probably as fall back foods during leaner times. Still, A. africanus , like chimps, may have required hammerstones to crack open nuts (such as marula nuts), though A. africanus

8085-446: The primate skull, identified it as from an extinct monkey and realised its possible significance to her mentor, Raymond Dart . Salmons was the first female student of Dart, an anatomist at the University of Witwatersrand . Salmons was permitted to take the fossilized skull and presented it to Dart, who also recognized it as a significant find. Dart asked the company to send any more interesting fossilized skulls that were unearthed. When

8190-535: The rest of the foot). Though A. africanus had an adducted big toe (it was not dextrous) like humans, A. africanus likely did not push off with the big toe, using the side of the foot instead. StW 573 is the oldest hominin specimen with an adducted big toe. The specimen StW 355 is the most curved proximal foot phalanx bone of any known hominin, more similar to that of orangutans and siamangs . The arms of StW 573 were about 53.4 cm (1 ft 9 in), and her legs 61.5 cm (2 ft 0 in). This means

8295-437: The science with the religious theology through the lens of "creation science", but there was still significant opposition. However, by this time, many other fossils such as Java Man , Neanderthal Man , and Rhodesian Man were being discovered, and the theory of evolution was becoming more difficult to refute. Solly Zuckerman , who had studied anatomy under Dart in South Africa, concluded as early as 1928 that Australopithecus

8400-498: The shoulders are in a shrugging position. The A. africanus shoulder is most like that of orangutans , and well suited for maintaining stability and bearing weight while raised and placed overhead. However, the right clavicle of StW 573 has a distinctly S-shaped (sigmoid) curve like humans, which indicates a humanlike moment arm for stabilising the shoulder girdle against the humerus . The A. africanus arm bones are consistent with powerful muscles useful in climbing. Nonetheless,

8505-474: The size of areas of the brain situated close to the surface, notably Wernicke's and Broca's areas , responsible for interpreting and producing speech . Traditionally, the casting material is some form of rubber or rubber-like material. The openings to the brain cavity, except for the foramen magnum , are closed, and the liquid rubber is slushed around in the empty cranial vault and then left to set. The resulting hollow sphere can then be drained of air like

8610-459: The time Broken Hill, Northern Rhodesia ) discovered in 1921, he asked his colleague to send him some primate remains from the quarry. On 24 November 1924, Dart received two boxes with fossils collected by De Bruyn. In them, he noticed a natural brain endocast and a face of a, now known to be 2.8 million year old, juvenile skull, the Taung child , that he immediately recognised as a transitional fossil between apes and humans. Most notably, it had

8715-567: The time the oldest known hominin, prompted a hypothesis that A. africanus was ancestral to P. robustus , and A. afarensis was the last common ancestor between Homo and A. africanus / P. robustus . It is also suggested that A. africanus is closely related to P. robustus but not to the other Paranthropus species in East Africa, or that A. africanus is ancestral to all Paranthropus . A. africanus has also been postulated to have been ancestral to A. sediba which also inhabited

8820-486: The twentieth century." The Taung Child was originally thought to have been about six years old at death because of the presence of deciduous teeth , but they are now believed to have been about three or four, based on studies of rates of enamel deposition on the teeth. There was some debate over the age of the child, initially because it was unclear if they grew at the speed of a human, or of an ape. Compared to an ape, they would have been aged about 4 years, and compared to

8925-449: The upper jaw the third molar is the largest molar, and in the lower jaw it is the second molar. A. africanus had a fast, apelike dental development rate. According to Clarke, the older " A. prometheus " is distinguished by larger and more bulbous cheek teeth, larger incisors and canines, more projecting cheeks, more widely spaced eye sockets , and a sagittal crest . A. africanus has a wide range of variation for skull features, which

9030-445: Was a climate of opinion that favored discoveries made in Asia but not the "silly notion" of small-brained bipeds from Africa. Sherwood Washburn , "Human Evolution After Raymond Dart" (1985) There were several reasons that it took decades for the field to accept Dart's claim that Australopithecus africanus was in the human line of descent. First and foremost was the fact that the British scientific establishment had been fooled by

9135-658: Was a competent biped , albeit less efficient at walking than humans. A. africanus also had several upper body traits in common with arboreal non-human apes. This is variously interpreted as either evidence of a partially or fully arboreal lifestyle, or as a non-functional vestige from a more apelike ancestor. The upper body of A. africanus is more apelike than that of the East African A. afarensis . A. africanus , unlike most other primates, seems to have exploited C4 foods such as grasses, seeds, rhizomes , underground storage organs , or potentially creatures higher up on

9240-677: Was a specialised herbivore; and in 1981, American palaeoanthropologist Frederick E. Grine suggested that P. robustus specialised on hard foods such as nuts whereas A. africanus on softer foods such as fruits and leaves. Based on carbon isotope analyses , A. africanus had a highly variable diet which included a notable amount of C4 savanna plants such as grasses, seeds, rhizomes , underground storage organs , or perhaps grass-eating invertebrates (such as locusts or termites ), grazing mammals, or insectivores or carnivores. Most primates do not eat C4 plants. A. africanus facial anatomy seems to suggest adaptations for producing high stress on

9345-450: Was born with about 38% of its total brain size, which is more similar to non-human great apes at 40% than humans at 30%. The inner ear has wide semicircular canals like non-human apes, as well as loose turns at the terminal end of the cochlea like humans. Such a mix may reflect habitual locomotion both in the trees and walking while upright because inner ear anatomy affects the vestibular system (sense of balance). A. africanus had

9450-416: Was correct in his analysis of the Taung Child; it did have human-like morphology. In 1946, Broom and his colleague Gerrit Schepers published a volume consolidating all the information they had found about Australopithecus africanus in a volume titled The South African Fossil Men: The Australopithecinae . In the late 1920s, American paleontologist William King Gregory also accepted that Australopithecus

9555-401: Was estimated to have stood about 130 cm (4 ft 3 in). Based on the A. afarensis skeleton DIK-1-1 , australopiths are thought to have had a humanlike spine, with 7 neck vertebrae , 12 thoracic vertebrae , and (based on other early australopith skeletons) 5 flexible lumbar vertebrae . In StW 573, the atlas bone in the neck, important for swiveling and stabilising the head,

9660-483: Was expanded globally in three different regions, contrary to the suggestion that he believed hominin brains evolved back-end-first, in a so-called mosaic fashion. This goes against Holloway's interpretation as he has indicated that the back area of the brain evolved before other regions of the brain, but it stands in agreement with Falk's belief that the brain evolved equally in a coordinated fashion instead. Australopithecus africanus Australopithecus africanus

9765-462: Was far removed from chimpanzees, showing several physical and claiming some behavioural similarities with humans. To this extent, Dart made note of the amalgamations of large mammal bone fragments in australopithecine-bearing caves which are now attributed to hyena activity. However, Dart proposed that the bones were instead evidence of what he named the " osteodontokeratic culture " produced by australopithecine hunters, who manufactured weapons using

9870-420: Was identified by comparison with skulls of chimpanzees. Its skull was larger than a fully-grown chimpanzee's. The forehead of the chimpanzee receded to form a heavy browridge and a jutting jaw; the Taung Child's forehead recedes but leaves no browridge. Its foramen magnum , a void in the cranium, where the spinal cord is continuous with the brain, is beneath the cranium so the creature must have stood upright. This

9975-440: Was informed by one of his students, Josephine Salmons, that monkey fossils (of Papio izodi ) had been discovered by shotfirer M.G. de Bruyn in a limestone quarry in Taung , South Africa, operated by the Northern Lime Company. Knowing that Scottish geologist Professor Robert Burns Young was at the time carrying out excavations in the area in search of archaic human remains like Homo rhodesiensis from Kabwe , Zambia (at

10080-506: Was little more than an ape. He and a four-member team carried out further studies of the Australopithecine family in the 1940s and 1950s. Using a "metrical and statistical approach" that he thought was superior to purely descriptive methods, he decided that the creatures had not walked on two legs and so were not an intermediate form between humans and apes. For the rest of his life, Zuckerman continued to deny that Australopithecus

10185-466: Was of great debate, as the sulcas was not incredibly visible on the endocast, as it often is not in apes. Ralph Holloway stood in opposition of this idea, as he had long been known as a supporter of Dart's analysis of Taung. He believed that the sulcus would be in the area of the lambdoid structure. Falk however, believed the sulcas was placed higher on the skull, in a more ape-like manner. However, studies surrounding this have been controversial, as there

10290-526: Was one of the few scientists defending the close human affinities of Australopithecus africanus . In 1936, he was informed by two of Dart's students, Trevor R. Jones and G. Schepers, that human-like remains had been discovered in the Sterkfontein Cave quarries. On 9 August 1936, he asked G.W. Barlow to provide him with any finds. On 17 August 1936 he received an adult skull including a natural endocast, specimen Sts 60. However, Broom classified it as

10395-700: Was part of the human family tree . Employed by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Gregory supported Charles Darwin and Thomas Henry Huxley 's then-unpopular view that humans were closely related to African apes. The director of the museum, however, was Henry Fairfield Osborn ; despite being "the chief public defender of evolution in the United States" at the time of the Scopes Trial in 1925, he disagreed with Darwin's views on

10500-450: Was part of the human family tree, even when that was the conclusion that had become "universally accepted" by scientists. Dart's claim that Australopithecus africanus , the species name that he had given to the Taung Child, was a transitional form between apes and humans was almost universally rejected. Robert Broom , a Scottish doctor who worked in South Africa, was one of the few scientists to believe Dart. Two weeks after Dart announced

10605-501: Was perpetuated by Charles Dawson 's 1912 hoax Piltdown Man hailing from Britain. Further, the discovery of the humanlike Peking Man ( Homo erectus pekinensis ) in China also seemed to place the origins of humankind outside of Africa. Humanlike characteristics of the Taung child were attributed to the specimen's juvenile status, meaning they would disappear with maturity. Nonetheless, Dart and Broom continued to argue that Australopithecus

10710-405: Was right and that I was wrong. The Australopithecinae are in or near the line which culminated in the human form". As Roger Lewin put it in his book Bones of Contention , "a prompter and more thorough capitulation could hardly be imagined". Dart drew conclusions that were unavoidably controversial due to the lack of more fossil evidence at the time. The idea that the skull belonged to a new genus

10815-412: Was unjustified, and that australopithecine remains from East Africa recovered over the previous couple of decades were indistinguishable from " Plesianthropus "/ A. africanus . Based on this, in 1955, Dart agreed with synonymising " A. prometheus " with A. africanus because they are already quite similar to each other, and if speciation did not occur across a continent, then it quite unlikely occurred over

10920-653: Was unsure if these predators actively sought them out and brought them back to the cave den to eat, or inhabited deeper recesses of caves and ambushed them when they entered. Baboons in this region modern day often shelter in sinkholes especially on cold winter nights, though Brain proposed that australopithecines seasonally migrated out of the Highveld and into the warmer Bushveld , only taking up cave shelters in spring and autumn. The A. africanus fossils from Sterkfontein Member 4 were likely accumulated by big cats , though hunting hyenas and jackals may have also played

11025-532: Was wrong", agreeing that with the new evidence along with the Taung fossil indicated that this fossil was human-like in posture, dental elements, and its bipedal walk. In early January 1947, at the First Pan-African Congress on Prehistory, Le Gros Clark was the first anthropologist of such stature to call the Taung Child a "hominid": an early human. An anonymous article, published in Nature on 15 February 1947, announced Clark's conclusions to

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