Australopithecus africanus, Taung child skull with brain endocast

Australopithecus africanus Taung Child Early Human Skull & Brain Endocast This is a resin replica of the original Taung Child the fossilized skull of a young Australopithecus africanus individual. It was discovered in 1924 by quarrymen working for the Northern Lime Company in Taung, South Africa. Raymond Dart, an anatomist at the University of Witwatersrand, received the fossil, recognized its importance and published his discovery in the journal Nature in 1925, describing it as a new species. The British establishment was at the time enamored with the hoax Piltdown man, which had a large brain and ape-like teeth – the exact opposite of the Taung Child – and Raymond Dart's finding was not appreciated for decades. The fossil consists of most of the face and mandible with teeth and, uniquely, a natural endocast of the braincase. It is estimated to be 2.5 MYA years old. Originally thought to have been a primate, Dart realized that the skull would have been positioned directly ab