SCANDALS About the earliest hominids found in east Africa and south Africa The first early hominid to be discovered and described was Australopithecus africanus 3 2 2 3 mya Described in 1925 by a young anatomist who taught at university in South Africa No one believed him WHY www talkorigins org Raymond Dart Anatomist teaching in South Africa Student brought him a jaw from a lime pit at Taung He requested more material Box of fossils arrived at his house on day of a formal event In box he found endocast that fit into an embedded partial face Took him 4 years to separate upper and lower jaws Could tell it was a hominid by the foramen magnum and teeth He published in Nature on Feb 7 1925 A africanus Storm of protest The fossil he described was a child Taung child Australopithecus africanus 3 6 year old child Juvenile brain about 405 410 cu cm Estimate adult brain of 440 cu cm Reconstruction of habitat where australopithecines deposited at the South African fossil localities Originally limestone caves Predator killed australopithecine and pulled body into tree Rotting parts fell down into shaft Present day surface marked dark brown Turnbaugh et al 2002 247 The Piltdown Hoax For 20 years Dart was discredited WHY Scientists thought the first human would have a big brain But Australopithecus had a brain the size of an ape s brain Prior to Dart s announcement of earliest hominid 1911 Charles Dawson an amateur geologist antiquarian found a skull and partial lower jaw in southern England Large brain but jaw looked like ape Eoanthropus dawsonii an overnight sensation Accepted by leading British scientists as the missing link Associated with extinct rhino mastodon and hippo Other scientists outside of England more skeptical Early 1950s finally did extensive analysis Used fluorine dating jaw younger than skull both young A FAKE Adolescent orangutan jaw teeth filed down and stained The fossil mastodon was from North Africa not England WHO Who perpetuated the hoax At least 11 suspects Moral to story Good science does not ignore evidence based on preconceptions of what should be
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