Robert Broom Research Articles

Raman spectroscopic and elemental analysis of bone from a prehistoric ancestor: Mrs Ples from the Sterkfontein cave

AbstractThe complementary value of analytical elemental and molecular data for archaeological relics recovered from a burial deposition is illustrated here with the non‐destructive analysis of bone specimens from an early human ancestor, known as Mrs Ples. Discovered in 1947 by Robert Broom in the Sterkfontein Cave system, forming part of the Cradle of Humankind in Gauteng Province, South Africa, a skull from Australopithecus africanus dated to 2.1 Mya has been identified as a Hominidae precursor to Homo sapiens. The ability to record novel compositional and structural data from such specimens without any form of chemical or mechanical pretreatment is fundamentally necessary for the preservation of such unique relics while affording conservators the information needed to undertake restoration and the adoption of conservation strategies. Our analyses revealed information about the state of preservation of the samples as well as their depositional context. Raman microspectroscopic mapping produced data on the spatial distribution of phosphate, quartz, carbon, calcite and manganese dioxide signatures on the bone fragments. Extensive deposits of pyrolusite, manganese(II) oxide, on the bone specimens are attributed to hydrogeological processes from ground water irrigation of the skeletal remains in the depositional environment; the identification of distinct quartz‐ and calcite‐rich areas may arise from taphonomic and/or depositional processes. Raman spectroscopic signatures of the organic proteinaceous component of the prehistoric bone are not observed, indicating the degradation of endogenous organics or, if present, were masked by exogeneous materials. The identification of carbon could additionally reflect the remains of biodegradative processes that have operated in the burial site. Elemental mapping using X‐ray fluorescence and variable pressure scanning electron microscopy imaging and spatially resolved energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy provided complementary information about the samples. The result is a comprehensive characterisation of the samples' morphology, elemental and molecular composition from the micro scale to the macroscale, using entirely non‐destructive analytical techniques.

Politics of fossils and the Royal Society: two letters from Robert Broom to Alexander du Toit (1941–1942)

Robert Broom, FRS (1866–1951) was the most internationally prominent South African palaeontologist in the early twentieth century. He wrote to the most famous South African geologist of that time, Alexander Logie du Toit (1878–1948), in 1941, after du Toit had retired to live in Cape Town. Broom speculated to du Toit about his chances of being nominated as Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and gave an account of his own experiences before being made an FRS in 1920, citing the opposition of Arthur Smith Woodward. He provided the reasons for his controversial sale of Karoo vertebrate fossils to the American Museum of Natural History in 1913 (rather than to the South African or British museums, as had been expected). In his second letter of 1942, Broom asked du Toit about the exact type locality of the important mammal-like reptile (therapsid) Tritylodon. He encouraged du Toit to seek the support of Arthur Rogers, FRS, in his fellowship bid for the Royal Society.

The Sterkfontein Caves after Eighty Years of Paleoanthropological Research: The Journey Continues

ABSTRACTThe Sterkfontein Caves, the richest Australopithecus‐bearing site in the world, occupies a crucial position in the history of South African scientific inquiry and has been pivotal to the development of the field of paleoanthropology. The site is physically and culturally embedded in the foundations of Johannesburg and is recognized as being one of the world's most important cultural heritage resources. The year 2016 was the eightieth anniversary of the discovery of the first adult Australopithecus by Robert Broom at Sterkfontein in 1936, a find that inspired three generations of paleoanthropological research throughout South Africa's Cradle of Humankind. Since this discovery, through fortune or dedicated research efforts, Sterkfontein has provided some of the most crucial clues to the complexities of our evolutionary past. In an auspicious year, 150 years since Robert Broom's birth, eighty years since Broom's discovery, and fifty years since Tobias's inauguration of a new Sterkfontein research program, this article presents a brief review of the history of research at Sterkfontein and its role in the development of the field of paleoanthropology. In light of this juncture, this article contributes two consolidated resources: a literature archive and a consolidated record of excavation‐diary entries since 1967. [Sterkfontein, Australopithecus, Cradle of Humankind, paleoanthropology, Robert Broom]

Robert Broom’s prehistoric sketches: conveying objects through illustration in the early-twentieth century

ABSTRACTThis article examines the images sketched by the palaeontologist Robert Broom (based in South Africa) in his correspondence to the scientists at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in the early-twentieth century. The drawings in Broom’s correspondence demonstrate a number of features around ‘the object habit,’ most notably how the construction and exchange of images were crucial aspects of studying, defining and understanding scientific objects, and built networks and relationships between scientists. The article examines how claims to truth and authority in early-twentieth century scientific discourse could operate around objects, and how private correspondence could simultaneously serve as an avenue to present apparently ‘objective’ data, emphasise key features of analysis, or engage in more speculative theorising.

How We Came to Be: Evidence from Primate Relatives and Fossil Ancestors Offer Clues to How Human Capabilities for Birth, Posture, and Walking Evolved

How We Came to Be: Evidence from Primate Relatives and Fossil Ancestors Offer Clues to How Human Capabilities for Birth, Posture, and Walking Evolved

L’histoire des recherches sur l’évolution humaine en Afrique du Sud de 1924 à 2016

South Africa has a rich palaeo-anthropological heritage. The very first Plio-Pleistocene specimen of Australopithecus, from the site of Taung, was described by Raymond Dart in 1925. In 1936 the first australopithecine was discovered at the site of Sterkfontein. Thereafter there was an increase in the number of hominin specimens attributed to Australopithecus, Paranthropus or early Homo from Sterkfontein, Swartkrans and Kromdraai (as reported by Robert Broom and John Robinson after 1947). The pioneering work was continued by Bob Brain, Elisabeth Vrba, Phillip Tobias, Ron Clarke, Francis Thackeray and their teams. Within recent decades many important discoveries have been made by young palaeontologists such as Dominique Gommery and Frank Senegas (Bolt's Farm Cave System), Jose Braga (Kromdraai), Travis Pickering (Swartkrans), Lee Berger (Malapa associated with A. sediba and Rising Star associated H. naledi), Colin Menter (Drimolen) and a growing number of young individuals with access to micro CT scanners and synchrotrons which permit studies of internal anatomy. This article presents a summary of the history of palaeo-anthropological fieldwork and research in South Africa within a period of almost 100 years.

Edinburgh, the Scottish pioneers of anatomy and their lasting influence in South Africa

The history of the origin of anatomy education in South Africa is the history of an arduous journey through time. The lasting influence of Edinburgh came in the form of Robert Black Thomson. He was a student and assistant of Sir William Turner who gave rise to the first chair of anatomy and the establishment of a department at the South African College, known today as University of Cape Town. Thomson was later succeeded by Matthew Drennan, a keen anthropologist, who was revered by his students. This Scottish link prevailed over time with the appointment of Edward Philip Stibbe as the chair of anatomy at the South African School of Mines and Technology, which later became the University of the Witwatersrand. Stibbe's successor, Raymond Arthur Dart, a graduate of the University of Sydney, was trained in an anatomy department sculpted on that of Edinburgh by Professor James Thomas Wilson. Wilson's influence at the University of Sydney can be traced back to Edinburgh and William Turner through Thomas Anderson Stuart. Both Dart and Robert Broom, another Scot, were considered as Africa's wild men by the late Professor Tobias. Here, the authors explore the Scottish link and origins of anatomy pedagogy in South Africa.

The roots of early mammals lie in the Karoo: Robert Broom's foundation and subsequent research progress

ABSTRACT Robert Broom (1866–1951) was the first palaeontologist to live in South Africa. Having trained as a medical doctor in Scotland he came to South Africa in 1897 and practised medicine while pursuing palaeontology as a hobby. As a pioneering palaeontologist, with no bounds to his infectious enthusiasm, he made an enormous contribution to a wide variety of fields of palaeontological endeavour. The reason why he specifically came to South Africa was to explore the evolutionary origin of mammals by undertaking research on the therapsid fossil record from the rocks of the Karoo. It was in this field that he published most of his scientific papers. Despite the then lack of large comparative collections and good fossil preparation facilities, Broom not only laid the foundations of therapsid taxonomy, biology, diversity and biostratigraphy. He also contributed substantially to developing and promoting – both locally and internationally – expertise in the science of palaeontology in South Africa. This paper acknowledges the pioneering research foundation laid by Robert Broom in the Karoo, and highlights the subsequent increase in our knowledge of therapsids, their biology, and our understanding of the origins of mammals.

Skeletal morphology, phylogenetic relationships and stratigraphic range of Eosimops newtoni Broom, 1921, a pylaecephalid dicynodont (Therapsida, Anomodontia) from the Middle Permian of South Africa

Robert Broom described Eosimops newtoni in 1921 based on a skull collected in Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone strata in South Africa, and the species has been largely overlooked since that time. Here we present several new specimens of E. newtoni, including a nearly complete skeleton, that allow a much more thorough description of its morphology. Eosimops newtoni is diagnosed by two autapomorphies, a postorbital bar that is anteroposteriorly expanded in lateral view and a posterior median palatal ridge that forms a flattened, Y-shaped platform surrounding the anterior median palatal ridges. Other characters include a single median nasal boss; parietals widely exposed on the skull roof; presence of lateral anterior palatal ridges; anterior edge of caniniform process set off from the palatal rim forming a notch; a small number of ‘postcanine' teeth on the maxilla; a large, ventrally directed transverse flange on the anterior pterygoid ramus; a robust, tall, blocky crista oesophagea; a shovel-shaped jaw symphysis; dentary tables absent; posterior dentary sulcus present and bounded medially by a dorsally convex blade; at least one ‘postcanine' tooth present on the dentary blade; three sacral vertebrae; cleithrum present; dorsal margin of the coracoid foramen formed by the scapula; proximal and distal ends of the humerus offset by approximately 90°; ectepicondylar foramen present; and trochlea and capitellum distinct. Comparison with Brachyprosopus broomi and Koupia koupensis shows that neither species is likely to be a junior synonym of E. newtoni. Phylogenetic analysis reconstructs E. newtoni as the most basal member of Pylaecephalidae. We also reassess the homologies and distribution of the dentary table and posterior dentary sulcus in dicynodonts in light of the jaw morphology of E. newtoni. The stratigraphic range of Eosimops newtoni begins in the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone, 1565 metres above the Ecca–Beaufort contact, and extends into the Pristerognathus Assemblage Zone.

Sex at Sterkfontein: ‘Mrs. Ples’ is still an adult female

The important question of whether the Australopithecus africanus hypodigm is taxonomically heterogeneous revolves largely around the interpretation of the morphological variation exhibited by the fossils from Sterkfontein. The sex assignment of these specimens is a critical component in the evaluation of their morphological variability. The Sts 5 cranium is pivotal in this regard because it is the most complete and undistorted specimen attributed to A. africanus. Although it has traditionally been regarded as an adult female, this view has been challenged. In particular, it has been argued recently that Sts 5 is a juvenile and that this, together with alveolar bone loss that has supposedly reduced the size of the canine socket, has led to its misinterpretation as a female. Virtual reconstruction of the M3 roots (and/or alveoli) contradicts arguments that these teeth were erupting at the time of death. Regardless, canine emergence and root completion are well ahead of M3 development in juvenile australopiths from Sterkfontein. Thus, even if the M3 root of Sts 5 was incomplete, its canine root would have been fully formed. Measurements of palate depth indicate that the alveolar margins of Sts 5 have not suffered from much (if any) bone loss in the region of the C/P3; any additional bone would result in a palate of truly exceptional depth. Therefore, the dimensions of the canine alveolus of Sts 5 can be regarded as proxies for those of the canine root. The canine root of Sts 5 is among the smallest recorded for any Sterkfontein australopith, which provides strong support for Robert Broom's initial attribution of sex to this specimen. There is no evidence to contradict the assertion that ‘Mrs. Ples’ is an adult female.

Ancestors of Broom's pigs

Between 1925 and 1950, Robert Broom described one new genus and four new species of extinct suids from Plio-Pleistocene sediments in South Africa – three of them of giant proportions and one the same size as the extant Wart Hog (Phacochoerus). Since the end of the Second World War, dozens of papers have been published on Plio-Pleistocene African suids, yet only one of the genera has had a detailed scenario of its origins published: Broom's genus Notochoerus, which is widely admitted to belong to the Tetraconodontinae and to be a descendant of Nyanzachoerus. The aim of this paper is to examine the well documented Late Miocene and Pliocene suid fossil record of Eurasia in order to determine whether any of the taxa could be closely related to the other African taxa described by Broom. A new species of suid from Egypt is described, which probably represents the earliest African record of the lineage that eventually gave rise to the kolpochoeres.

Canteen Kopje: A new look at an old skull

The Canteen Kopje (CK) skull was found by a diamond digger working the Vaal River gravels in 1929. It was hailed by Robert Broom as an exceptionally robust prehistoric individual that was ancestral to modern South African populations. Further exploration of the Vaal Gravels has confirmed the antiquity of the purported find locality, but the heavily restored CK cranium offers limited possibilities for morphometric re-examination or direct dating with which to test Broom’s assertion. We used X-ray tomography to create a computerised 3D image that would provide optimal visualisation of the morphometry of the bony surfaces. The results showed that the CK cranium falls within the range of variation of Holocene Khoesan and lacks archaic features. We propose that it was probably a Late Stone Age intrusion into the Vaal Gravels or the overlying Hutton Sands.

One or two species? A morphometric comparison between robust australopithecines from Kromdraai and Swartkrans

The type specimen of Paranthropus robustus (TM 1517, including a partial cranium) was discovered at Kromdraai near Sterkfontein in 1938 and described by Robert Broom as a new species. Subsequently, more robust australopithecines were discovered at the nearby site of Swartkrans. These Swartkrans hominins were described by Broom as Paranthropus crassidens. Many palaeoanthropologists currently regard the robust australopithecines from Kromdraai and Swartkrans as one species, but consensus has not been reached on this issue. A morphometric analysis has been undertaken to assess the probability that specimens attributed to P. crassidens represent the same species as that which is represented by TM 1517, the holotype of P. robustus. Our results failed to reject the null hypothesis that both sites sample the same, single species of robust australopithecine.

Darwin’s legacy in South African evolutionary biology

In the two decades after publication of the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin facilitated the publication of numerous scientific papers by settler naturalists in South Africa. This helped to establish the strong tradition of natural history which has characterised evolutionary research in South African museums, herbaria and universities. Significant developments in the early 20th century included the hominid fossil discoveries of Raymond Dart, Robert Broom, and others, but there was otherwise very little South African involvement in the evolutionary synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s. Evolutionary biology developed into a distinct discipline in South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s when it was dominated by mammalian palaeontology and a vigorous debate around species concepts. In the post-apartheid era, the main focus of evolutionary biology has been the construction of phylogenies for African plants and animals using molecular data, and the use of these phylogenies to answer questions about taxonomic classification and trait evolution. South African biologists have also recently contributed important evidence for some of Darwin’s ideas about plant–animal coevolution, sexual selection, and the role of natural selection in speciation. A bibliographic analysis shows that South African authors produce 2–3% of the world’s publications in the field of evolutionary biology, which is much higher than the value of about 0.5% for publications in all sciences. With its extraordinary bio

Design and Dissent: Religion, Authority, and the Scientific Spirit of Robert Broom

The paleontologist Robert Broom developed an image of himself as a scientific rebel, assailing the centers of expert authority from the margins as he pursued a career whose idiosyncratic path was dictated less by the promise of professional security or material reward than by the whims of his curiosity and the desire to be free of institutional constraint. In the 1930s Broom put forward an idiosyncratic evolutionary theory that rejected both Lamarckian and Darwinian mechanisms in favor of "spiritual agencies" responsible for the evolutionary process. He characterized his views as a dissent from the orthodox evolutionary thought of most scientific authorities, and he believed such acts of dissent to be integral to the virtuous conduct of science. Broom was drawing on a familiar trope in the history of the sciences--that of the scientist as a heroic rebel. However, the religious inflection of Broom's theory, and his characterization of fellow scientists as purveyors of orthodoxy, reverses the more common form of the trope, which associates religion with orthodoxy and institutional authority.

Random recollections of some remarkable colleagues

When I returned to South Africa in 1936 after taking a degree in geology at Cambridge University, I envisaged a career in the mining world and had little idea that I was soon to be plunged into the exciting exploration of the past history of Man in this continent and to enjoy a long and happy association with such vital and inspiring men as Robert Broom, C. van Riet Lowe, Raymond Dart, Louis and Mary Leakey, Desmond Clark.

H. Basil S. Cooke FRSSAf: a biographical note

Basil Cooke is the last surviving giant of a cohort of pioneering African palaeontologists, which included Robert Broom, Raymond Dart and John Robinson in South Africa, as well as Louis Leakey in East Africa. Whereas palaeoanthropologists tend to have high public profiles and earn sobriquets such as 'Wild Men of Africa', Basil has been a very gentlemanly 'scientist's scientist', who is appreciated by his colleagues for his seminal work over an incredible 70-year career.

Robert Broom's theory of evolution

Robert Broom (1866–1951) was one of South Africa's most distinguished scientists, a multi-faceted genius who contributed to many scientific disciplines, most notably to comparative anatomy, palaeontology and physical anthropology. This paper investigates the least known aspect of Broom's scientific output, his views on the mechanisms of evolutionary change. Broom believed that spiritual forces were behind evolution and that the creation of superhuman individuals and immortal souls was the ultimate end of evolution. This explanation was one of many similar attempts by scientists to incorporate into a theory of organic evolution some of the religious beliefs and values that seemed to be undermined by Darwinism. Speculative and unscientific from the perspective of contemporary science, Broom's theory of evolution gains different meaning if perceived within the intellectual context of the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century from which it originated.

Robert Broom's 'South Africa and Evolution'

Robert Broom's 'South Africa and Evolution'

A fossil skull probably of the genus Homo from Sterkfontein, Transvaal

A skull with numerous Homo features was discovered at Sterkfontein, near Krugersdorp, Transvaal, in August 1976. It stems from member 5 of the Sterkfontein Formation, with stone tools and with fauna pointing to an age of 2.0-1.5 Myr. The underlying member 4 contains Australopithecus africanus, no stone tools, and fauna dated 3.0-2.5 Myr. The new find supports the view that the Sterkfontein toolmaker was not the earlier A. africanus, but a later hominid related to Homo habilis. By a remarkable double coincidence, the first pieces of the new skull, Stw 53, were found on August 9, 1976, 40 years to the day after Robert Broom's first visit to Sterkfontein, while the last part came to light on August 17, the 40th anniversary of Broom's first discovery of a hominid cranium at Sterkfontein. Although most of the fragments were found in a decalcified pocket of cave earth, one large part of the calvaria was still present in the calcified wall of the pocket, thus establishing indisputably the provenance of the specimen.