San Diego Museum of Man - Footsteps Through Time

Timestone 6
3 to 2.5 million years ago
Australopithecus africanus

The Taung Child fossil was found in 1924 and was the first named australopithecine. Many scientists thought the small skull was that of an ape and it was not until the 1940s that it was accepted as a hominid.

The discovery in 1947 of a hominid skull nicknamed Mrs. Ples (from the original name Plesianthropus) led scientists to accept the Taung Child as a hominid. At the time Mrs. Ples was the most complete australopithecine skull. It showed both ape-like and human-like features. Even though the brain was small, the skull showed that these primates were bipedal.

Cast of fossil partial skull with jaw and endocast (cast of the inside of the skull)
Australopithecus africanus-Taung Child
Found near Taung, South Africa, in 1924 by M. de Bruyn, and analyzed by Raymond Dart
Age: around 2.5 million years

Cast of fossil skull
Australopithecus africanus-Mrs. Ples
Found in Sterkfontein, South Africa, in 1947 by Robert Broom and John T. Robinson
Age: around 2.5 million years

"Taung Child" Reconstruction
"Mrs. Ples" Reconstruction
Artist: William Munns

The Taung Child and Mrs. Ples are called "gracile" australopithecines, as opposed to their "robust" relatives. That does not mean they were more slender or graceful, but that their skulls were not large and rugged. Gracile fossils show smaller, more modern-looking teeth and more delicate jaws. They did not have the massive chewing structures of their robust relatives, and so they probably ate softer foods.