Taung Child

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.

Taung Child
Catalog no.Taung 1
Common nameTaung Child
SpeciesAustralopithecus africanus
Age~2.8 mya; 3.3 years when deceased
Place discoveredTaung, South Africa
Date discovered1924
Discovered byRaymond Dart

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 the twentieth century."

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.