Date: 2.8 million years old
Location: Taung, South Africa
Species: Australopithecus africanus
Discovered by: Raymond Dart
Date of Discovery: 1924
Details: The Taung child was the first Australopithecine skull found. Dart (correctly) believed he had found an intermediate species between the living primates and humans; however, Dart was heavily criticized and his findings were dismissed as simply another fossil primate insignificant to our own evolution. The validity of Dart's findings wouldn't be realized until the 1930s when Robert Broom found additional Australopithecus fossils 25 km from the Taung site at Sterkfontein. |
 |
