Taung Child

E546570

The Taung Child is a famous fossilized skull and endocast of a young early hominin discovered in South Africa in 1924, which provided crucial evidence for human evolution originating in Africa.

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Statements (48)

Predicate Object
instanceOf fossil specimen
hominin fossil
type specimen
ageClass juvenile
alsoKnownAs Taung 1 NERFINISHED
Taung skull NERFINISHED
announcedInJournal Nature NERFINISHED
announcementYear 1925
associatedWithResearcher Phillip V. Tobias NERFINISHED
Robert Broom NERFINISHED
brainEndocastPresent true
brainSizeEstimateInCubicCentimeters 400
brainSizeEstimateRangeInCubicCentimeters 400–450
canineSizeRelativeToApes reduced
continentOfDiscovery Africa NERFINISHED
countryOfDiscovery South Africa NERFINISHED
cranialCapacityRelativeToApes intermediate
cranialCapacityRelativeToModernHumans smaller
currentRepository University of the Witwatersrand NERFINISHED
currentRepositoryCity Johannesburg NERFINISHED
currentRepositoryCountry South Africa NERFINISHED
dentalDevelopmentStage mixed dentition
describedBy Raymond Dart NERFINISHED
discoveredBy Raymond Dart NERFINISHED
discoveredInYear 1924
discoverySite Taung, South Africa NERFINISHED
estimatedAgeAtDeathInYears 3
estimatedAgeAtDeathRangeInYears 2–4
estimatedAgeInYears 2500000
estimatedAgeRangeInYears 2000000–3000000
evidenceForBipedalism foramen magnum position
facePrognathism moderate
foramenMagnumPosition anterior
fossilType cranium
endocast
geologicalEpoch Pleistocene NERFINISHED
Pliocene NERFINISHED
geologicalFormation Buxton Limeworks NERFINISHED
holotypeOf Australopithecus africanus NERFINISHED
influenced acceptance of African origin of humans
paleoanthropological research in South Africa
partOf South African hominin fossil record
preservationState partial skull
sex undetermined
significance challenged Eurocentric theories of human origins
early evidence for human evolution in Africa
supported bipedalism preceding large brain size
taxon Australopithecus africanus NERFINISHED

Referenced by (1)

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