It started as a curiosity atop a mantelpiece, a primate’s fossilized skull displayed as an interesting knickknack. Yet it would soon help unlock humans’ evolutionary story, providing the first clues ...

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On December 23, 1924, the Australian anatomist Raymond Dart chipped away the last bit of rock encasing the skull of a small fossil primate. The specimen had been part of a collection of fossil scraps ...

In November 1924 — on the day they were hosting a wedding at their Johannesburg home in South Africa — Australian anatomist and physician Raymond Dart and his wife Dora noticed two men staggering up ...

Depictions of extinct human ancestors and cousins are often more art than science. Take, for example, two reconstructions of the Taung child, a 2.8-million-year-old Australopithecus africanus skull ...

In the distant past, perhaps seven million years ago, chimpanzees and hominids branched from a shared ancestor. The hominids evolved and branched into at least twelve distinct species. Today, only one ...

The Taung Child, South Africa's premier hominin discovered 90 years ago by Wits University Professor Raymond Dart, continues to shed light on human origins. By subjecting the skull of the first ...

The case of who killed the single most important human ancestor has finally been laid to rest after more than 80 years of debate and scientific investigation. The announcement that the Taung child was ...

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