Wesleyan University Archaeology & Anthropology Collections Hominin Fossil Casts
Species Designation: Australopithecus africanus ID/ Nickname: Taung Child Date: 2.4 - 2.9 million years ago Catalog #: 2004-11-2 a,b,c Description: cranium, mandible, endocranial cast

Context of Discovery:

Discovered at Taung, South Africa by Raymond Dart in 1924 among two crates of fossiliferous breccia (blocks of sandy sediment and fossils cemented together) from a limestone quarry.

Facts about the "Taung Child":

Many people were initially skeptical about classifying the Taung Child as a hominin. This was because juveniles are often misrepresentative of adult states, and most researchers claimed that the Taung Child would have developed into a chimpanzee or gorilla ancestor. Also, the Taung Child did not fit the popular preconceived idea that the earliest ancestor of humans would have an ape-like body and a human-like large brain. (We now know that our early hominid ancestors had these traits reversed--they had human-like bodies below the neck and small brains.) Dart claimed that the Taung Child was bipedal due to the position of the foramen magnum, which was pointed downward and nearly at the central balance point of the skull. In addition, the canine teeth were relatively short.  In both of these traits, the Taung child was much more like a human than an ape.

Important Publications:

Broom, R. 1925. "Some notes on the Taungs skull."  Nature 115: 569-571.

Le Gros Clark, W. 1947. "Observtaion on the anatomy of the fossil Australopithecinae." Journal of Anatomy 83:300-333.

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