Taung

Grieving for infants by primate and hominin mothers

Studies of nonhuman primates have documented days up to months of carrying infants after death.

Sep 20 • John Hawks

Expanding the “Cradle of Humankind”

Developing a broader idea of the habitats and capacities of early hominins

Aug 30, 2025 • John Hawks

Human origins science in 1925: the good, the bad, and the fake

As I look back at a sometimes-confusing picture of a science in its early days, I see some connections with today's landscape.

Jul 13, 2025 • John Hawks

Gathering the Ancestors

The largest exhibition of hominin fossils in history brought together science, the public, and geopolitics at the height of the Cold War.

Mar 2, 2025 • John Hawks

Research highlight: Brain of the Taung Child

A new study of the endocast discovered a hundred years ago asks, what if we found this fossil today?

Feb 19, 2025 • John Hawks

The circumstances of the Taung discovery

The textbook story of the fossil leaves out a wider context in which scientists interpreted the first evidence of Australopithecus.

Feb 14, 2025 • John Hawks

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