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paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Taung

  • Taung

    Tue, 2011-10-25 00:38 -- John Hawks
    Synopsis: 
    A lab station introducing the Taung specimen and considering its age.

    The face, mandible and endocast from Taung, South Africa, was the first australopithecine fossil to be discovered. We now know that the fossil dates to the period between 2.5 and 3.0 million years ago, but at the time of its discovery, the precise date was not known; only that it was likely earlier than fossil evidence for human evolution outside Africa.

    The morphology of the specimen was therefore the strongest evidence about its relationships to humans and living apes. Interpreting the morphology means coming to terms with the developmental age of the skull.

    Assess the age and morphology of the individual:

    1. What dental age would you assign to Taung, based on your knowledge of human dental development?
    2. What differences are there between Taung and the chimpanzee?
    3. Imagine that Taung was the only australopithecine specimen ever discovered, as it once was. How would you support the argument that it was a hominid?
    Study terms: 
    Taung
    Tags: 
    Taung
    South Africa
    development

  • Naming your fictional species

    Mon, 2011-02-14 00:53 -- John Hawks

    How very strange. I was doing a routine Google lookup for "Taung" tonight, and I discovered that the top hit has nothing to do with the Taung fossil specimen or site at all. No, it's from Wookiepedia, the Star Wars wiki. It seems that some author within the Star Wars fantasy universe created a race of creatures called the "Taungs":

    The Taungs, later known as the Mandalorians,[1] were a warlike Near-Human species that dominated the planet Coruscant thousands of years before the rise of Humans.

    I hadn't really thought about the obvious possibility that the names of paleontological sites often fulfill the desiderata of science fiction names -- vaguely foreign-sounding, associated with a definite historical connotation.

    Tags: 
    Taung
    fiction
    movies

  • Quote: Popular Science on Taung (1924)

    Sat, 2010-03-06 07:30 -- John Hawks

    A reader passes along a link to the Popular Science archive, now available free.

    So naturally, I searched immediately for "Australopithecus". And in the April 1925 issue, they covered Raymond Dart's discovery at Taung. The short article appears on the same page as a picture of an early tanning bed (complete with topless woman) and a rather short Javan man standing next to a rather tall Titan arum flower. Here's one of the five paragraphs:

    The difference between men and animals is associated with the size of certain parts of the brain. The Pithecanthropus, the oldest man known, from the shape of a skull found, is judged to have been a creature who could speak. Judging again from the shape of its skull, Professor Dart says that the newly discovered manlike ape could not yet speak, but had a brain much more developed than that of an ape. That is, the brain was enlarged in those parts associated with human characteristics.

    Isn't it remarkable how much more information articles about human evolution pack in today?

    Hmmm...why did I never get into Popular Science when I was a kid? Here's a clue: after 1925, "Australopithecus" doesn't appear in the archive again until 1993!

    Tags: 
    history
    Raymond Dart
    history of anthropology
    Taung
Subscribe to Taung

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