Fossil Anthropoids Research Articles

New Fossil Anthropoid Skull from South Africa

IT is nearly twelve years ago since Prof. R. A. Dart startled the world by the announcement of the discovery of a new type of fossil anthropoid found in a limestone cave at Taungs in Bechuana-land, South Africa. The specimen consists of most of the brain cast and the practically perfect face of a very young ape. The functional teeth are all of the milk set, though the first upper and lower molars have cut the gum but do not yet meet. Though the ape was only very young, Dart estimated the cranial capacity at more than 500 c.c, and considered that in an adult it might exceed 700 c.c. He believed that this little fossil ape is not very closely allied to either the chimpanzee or the gorilla, and that it is probably nearer to the ape from which man has been descended and thus to be practically the long sought for missing link.

New Fossil Anthropoid Skull from South Africa

A DISCOVERY is announced from South Africa which, if first impressions are confirmed by more detailed examination, may go far towards clearing up a point which has been a matter of acute anthropological controversy for more than a decade. Dr. Robert Broom, of the Transvaal Museum, and his colleagues, it is reported in a dispatch from the Johannesburg correspondent of The Times in the issue of August 26, have discovered in the Sterk-fontein caves near Krugersdorp, a natural cast in limestone of the brain of an advanced type of ape and a number of fossilized bones of the skull, including jaws and teeth. It is anticipated that this new evidence will prove of importance in its bearing upon the status of the phylogeny of man and the great apes, and more especially on the position of the Taungs skull. It will be remembered that, when that fossil was found in 1924, some doubt was expressed as to how far the approximation to the human type in its characters stressed by Prof. Raymond Dart, by whom it was discovered, was due to its immaturity. The young of the chimpanzee, it was pointed out, is well known to exhibit pseudo-human characters, which disappear as maturity approaches; and it was agreed that the Taungs skull was that of an individual of not more than six years of age. As the Sterkfontein specimen, it would appear, is adult, a comparison with the Taungs skull may determine these uncertainties, and at the same time afford an indication of the relation of these fossil types to existing anthropoids as well as to early forms of man.

Erratum to: The Fossil Anthropoid Ape from Taungs

Erratum to: The Fossil Anthropoid Ape from Taungs

The Fossil Anthropoid Ape from Taungs

By Sir ARTHUR KEITH, F.R.S

Current Topics and Events

ELSEWHERE in this issue appears an account of a remarkable discovery which appears to afford ftrima, facie evidence of the occurrence at a remote period in South Africa of a pre-human stock, neither chimpanzee nor gorilla, and possessing a series of characters differentiating it from any anthropoid hitherto known. Fossilised fragments from a limestone cliff formation at Taungs, 80 miles north of Kimberley, in Bechuanaland, when fitted together, have revealed a natural endocranial cast with almost the entire face of what at first sight appeared to be an anthropoid, but on closer examination is found by Prof. Dart to exhibit humanoid rather than anthropoid characters. The occurrence of a fossil anthropoid so far south would in itself be sufficiently remarkable, but the interest and importance of this discovery is enhanced by its remarkable divergence from the anthropoid and its approximation to the human stock. Not only is this exhibited in the character of the cranium as a whole, but it is also apparent in the formation of the brain, so far as this is indicated by the endocranial cast. The position of the foramen magnum, if correctly estimated, in itself would indicate that this sub-human type was well on the way towards acquiring the upright posture, and the inference of an increase in intelligence which would follow upon a freer use of the fore-limbs is supported by the development of the association areas of the brain, which is such as to indicate a marked advance in the growth of intellect. So far are we taken by Prof. Dart's preliminary report and the photographs which accompany it. A detailed examination of the evidence upon which his conclusions are based must await the publication of the monograph now in course of preparation. Within recent years, South Africa, in the discovery of the Boskop and Rhodesian skulls, has added remarkable chapters to the history of early man; but even the interest of Rhodesian 'man may well be eclipsed if the claim of Australopithecus africanus be substantiated. In this event, we shall have advanced one stage further, and that a stage of the greatest importance, in the quest for the cradle of˜mankind, whether that eventually prove to have been in Africa or elsewhere.