DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALOPITHECUS AFRICANUS

DART, R. A.

Australopithecus Africanus: The Man-ape of South Africa.

London, Macmillan & Co., 1925.

Royal8vo. Bound in contemporary half calf with two black leather title label to spine with gilt lettering. Five raised bands. In "Nature", Vol. 115, January - June, 1925. Library stamp of Christ Church College, Oxford on first page of index with their bookplate on front free endpaper and that of Dr Lee's Laboratory, Christ Church, on front paste-down. Minor wear to extremities, otherwise a very fine and clean copy. Pp. 195-9.


First announcement of the revolutionary discovery of Australopithecus africanus. 

Australopithecus africanus was an early hominid, who lived between 3.03 and 2.04 million years ago in the later Pliocene and early Pleistocene. In common with the older Australopithecus afarensis, Australopithecus africanus was of slender build and was thought to have been a direct ancestor of modern humans. Fossil remains indicate that Au. africanus was significantly more like modern humans than Au. afarensis, with a more human-like cranium permitting a larger brain and more humanoid facial features. Au. africanus has been found at only four sites in southern Africa.

A quarryman, blasting in a fossiliferous lime deposit near Taungs in West Transvaal, South Africa., came across a small skull which looked very human to him. The skull was sent to Dr. Raymond Dart, an anatomist from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Dart studied the skull and reached the conclusion that it was that of an infant being intermediate between a higher ape and man, and early in 1925 published a paper describing this fossil, which he names Australopithecus africanus.

Order-nr.: 47057


DKK 2.200,00