Taungs Skull Finder In New Zealand

Chronicle (Levin), 29 December 1949, Page 5

Taungs Skull Finder In New Zealand

AUCKLAND, Dec. 26. Dr Raymond A. Dart, professor of ajiatomy at tlie, University of Witwatersrand, Job.annesburg, and ^ former ly for 16 years dean of tfie faeuity of medicine tliere, arrived at^ Auckland by air from America. on Sunday. An 'Australian by birth, he will visit his mother in Queensland and other relatives, on his way back to feoutb Africa from the United States and Canada. - At^the invitation of the Viking Fund of New York, Dr Dart took to an American congress of anthropolgists what is known as the Taung's skull and other fossil reniains of the South African man- like apes, for whose discovery he was responsible. After demonstrating these to the congress in August and September, he delivered a series of lectures under the Lowell Institute in Boston, He/^as given a grant by the Roekefeller Foundation, of which he was one of the first two fellows to be appointed from Great Britain in 192021, and travelled exteusively in Canada, the United States and Mexico, visiting medical and anthropological schools gnd lecturing in universities. * The creatures to which the Taungs skull gave scientists the key were described by Dr Dart as existing probably more than one million years ago and being among the earliest stages in the evolution of mankind. Their brains were little if at all bigger than those of living apes, but they had teeth like man, walked erect, and lived in caves out in the open eountry away from forests. They hunted wild game and kilied them with bone elubs and antelope jaws, anu may have had some knowledge of the use of fire. v Other discoveries had been made about these creatures and investigations were carried out by his university in the valley where the last fossil remains were found, said Di Dart. Aged 56, Dr * Dart was edueated in Australia' and held medical posts in Australia before going' to England and Prance with the Australian Army Medi , cal Corps as a captain in the final years of the First World Waf. After holding posts as senior demonstrator of anatomy and lecturer in histology at University College, London, he became professor of anatomy. at the University of Witwatersrand in 1923. Taking a leading interest in anthropology, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, later serving as vice-president, and has held posts on important medical and nursing councils. He is president of the anthropological section on the Pan-African Congress of Prehistory and has been a mernber of the International Commission on Fossil Man since 1929. He has contributed to a number of publications.