Raymond A. Dart - Taung 1924 -1974

The Museum of Man and Science, 1974, softcover, landscape format, illustrated, 24 pages, 29.7 cms x 21 cms, condition: very good.

Published to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the discovery of the "missing Link" at Taung in 1924.

In 1924, Dart discovered the first Australopithecus africanus fossil, an extinct hominin closely related to humans. His colleague, Professor Robert Burns Young from the Buxton Limeworks, had sent Dart two crates of fossils from the small town of Taung in North West Province. Upon seeing the fossils, Dart immediately recognized one as being an early human because its brain dimensions were too large for a baboon or chimpanzee. Blasting had exposed a breccia-filled cave and the child's skull had come to light together with several fossilized monkeys and hyraxes. M. de Bruyn had noticed their unusual nature in November 1924 and informed the Limeworks manager, Mr. A.E. Spiers.