Taung Child
From Freepedia
Taung Child refers to the fossil of a skull and brain specimen of Australopithecus africanus. It was discovered in 1924 by quarryman working for the Northern Lime Company in Taung, South Africa. Raymond Dart, an anatomist at the University of Witwatersrand, received the artifacts, recognized their importance and published his discovery in the journal Nature in 1925. Unfortunately, the British establishment was at the time enamoured 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.
Taung Child is believed to have been a three-year-old being at the time of its death 2.5 million years ago. It was a creature standing 3' 6" at approximately 75 pounds. Taung Child had a cranial capacity of 340cc, living mainly in a savanna habitat.
This is another view taken:
"Differences due to age are especially significant with reference to the structure of the skull in apes. Very pronounced changes occur during the transition from juvenile to adult in apes, but not in Man. The skull of a juvenile ape is somewhat different from that of Man. We may remember that the first specimen of Australopithecus that was discovered by Raymond Dart, the Tuang ‘child,’ was that of a juvenile [ape]. This juvenile skull should never have been compared to those of adult apes and humans."—Duane Gish, Evolution: the Challenge of the Fossil Record (1985), p. 178. Many scientists believe this discovery to be the skull of a young ape.
