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.

All labels observed (4)

Label Occurrences
Taung Child canonical 3
Taung 1 1
Taung Child fossil 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (48)

Predicate Object
instanceOf fossil specimen
hominin fossil
type specimen
ageClass juvenile
alsoKnownAs Taung 1
linked to: Taung Child

Taung skull
linked to: Taung Child
announcedInJournal Nature
announcementYear 1925
associatedWithResearcher Phillip V. Tobias
Robert Broom
brainEndocastPresent true
brainSizeEstimateInCubicCentimeters 400
brainSizeEstimateRangeInCubicCentimeters 400–450
canineSizeRelativeToApes reduced
continentOfDiscovery Africa
countryOfDiscovery South Africa
cranialCapacityRelativeToApes intermediate
cranialCapacityRelativeToModernHumans smaller
currentRepository University of the Witwatersrand
currentRepositoryCity Johannesburg
currentRepositoryCountry South Africa
dentalDevelopmentStage mixed dentition
describedBy Raymond Dart
discoveredBy Raymond Dart
discoveredInYear 1924
discoverySite Taung, South Africa
estimatedAgeAtDeathInYears 3
estimatedAgeAtDeathRangeInYears 2–4
estimatedAgeInYears 2500000
estimatedAgeRangeInYears 2000000–3000000
evidenceForBipedalism foramen magnum position
facePrognathism moderate
foramenMagnumPosition anterior
fossilType cranium
endocast
geologicalEpoch Pleistocene
linked to: Pleistocene epoch

Pliocene
linked to: Pliocene epoch
geologicalFormation Buxton Limeworks
holotypeOf Australopithecus africanus
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

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (6)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Taung, South Africa knownFor Taung Child fossil
linked to: Taung Child
Taung Child alsoKnownAs Taung skull
linked to: Taung Child
Taung Child alsoKnownAs Taung 1
linked to: Taung Child
Raymond Dart discovered Taung Child