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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.
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 was far removed from chimpanzees, showing several physical and claiming some behavioural similarities with humans.
The Taung Child is among the most important early human fossils ever discovered. It was the first hominid to be discovered in Africa , a species later named Australopithecus africanus , supporting Charles Darwin 's concepts that the closest living relatives of humans are the African apes .
The fossil skull was from a three-year-old bipedal primate (nicknamed Taung Child) that he named Australopithecus africanus. The first report was published in Nature in February 1925. Dart realised that the fossil contained a number of humanoid features, and so he came to the conclusion that this was an early human ancestor. [17]
The Osteodontokeratic ("bone-tooth-horn", Greek and Latin derivation) culture (ODK) is a hypothesis that was developed by Prof. Raymond Dart (who identified the Taung child fossil in 1924, and published the find in Nature Magazine in 1925), [1] which detailed the predatory habits of Australopith species in South Africa involving the manufacture and use of osseous implements.
Sterkfontein, Cradle of Humankind Location in Gauteng Location Gauteng, South Africa Coordinates 26°00′57″S 27°44′05″E / 26.0157°S 27.7346°E / -26.0157; 27.7346 Established Declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 Governing body Cradle of Humankind Archaeologists in a structure above the entrance to Sterkfontein Sterkfontein (Afrikaans for Strong Spring) is a set of ...
The find helped corroborate the 1924 discovery by Raymond Dart of the juvenile Australopithecus africanus skull known as the "Taung Child" at Taung in the North West Province of South Africa, where excavations still continue.
The famous Taung Child, 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 .