Raymond Dart

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Raymond Arthur Dart
Raymond Dart with the Taung Child skull
Born	4 February 1893(1893-02-04) Brisbane, Queensland
Died	22 November 1988(1988-11-22) (aged 95) Johannesburg, South Africa
Nationality	Australian
Fields	anatomist, anthropologist
Known for	Australopithecus Africanus

Raymond Arthur Dart (4 February 1893 – 22 November 1988) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist, best known for his involvement in the 1924 discovery of the first fossil ever found of Australopithecus africanus, an extinct hominid closely related to humans, at Taung in the North of South Africa in the province Northwest.

Early life

Dart was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, the son of a farmer and tradesman. He studied at Ipswich Grammar School, the University of Queensland, St. Andrew's College, Sydney, University of Sydney and University College, London, before taking a position as head of the newly established department of anatomy at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1922.

Career

In 1924, Dart discovered the first fossil ever found of Australopithecus africanus, an extinct hominid closely related to humans, at Taung in North South Africa, in the province Northwest. However, because he was not part of the scientific establishment, and because he found the fossil in Africa, and not Europe or Asia, where the establishment supposed man's origins, his findings were dismissed initially.^[1]

Dart's closest ally was Robert Broom whose discoveries of further Australopithecines (as well as Wilfrid Le Gros Clark's support) eventually vindicated Dart. So much so that during 1947, Sir Arthur Keith said "...Dart was right, and I was wrong". Keith made this statement referring to his dismissal and skepticism of Dart's analysis of the 'Taung Child' as an early human ancestor; Keith thought that it was more likely to be an ape, yet later research by Broom confirmed Dart's theories.

Not all of Dart's ideas are accepted now. His assertion that gazelle long-bones found in association with Australopithecus africanus were used as tools is unproven and largely dismissed.^{[citation needed]} Dart also originated the killer ape theory. Although some other anthropologists, notably Robert Ardrey, defended and further developed the theory, it is still widely questioned.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Dart was married twice and had 2 children.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy

The Institute for the Study of Man in Africa was established in 1956 at Witwatersrand in his honor.^[2]

In his position as director of the School of Anatomy at University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, until 1958. There he worked with Phillip Tobias, who continues his work in the study of the Cradle of Humankind and other paleoanthropological sites. In 1959, an autobiographical account of Dart's discoveries, Adventures with the Missing Link, was published (with Dennis Craig as co-author). In the book he acknowledges the crucial role played by his first female student and Demonstrator, Josephine Salmons. She brought to his attention the existence of a fossilised baboon skull at the house of Mr E.G. Izod, director of the Northern Lime Company and proprietor of a quarry in Taung. The skull was kept as an ornament on the mantlepiece above the fireplace at his home. In bringing the skull to show Prof. Raymond Dart, she set in motion a chain of events that led to the discovery of the 'Child skull of Taung' She later became wife of Prof. Cecil Jackson, Professor of Anatomy at Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, University of Pretoria.

At the age of 73, Dart began dividing his time between South Africa and The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP), an organization founded by Glenn Doman. Dart spent much of the next twenty years working with the IAHP, an organization that treats brain injured children. ^[3]

Bibliography

• Dart R.A. (1925): Australopithecus africanus: The Man-Ape of South Africa. Nature, Vol.115, No.2884 (1925) 195-9 (the original paper communicating the Taung finding, in PDF format).
• Dart, R.A. (1953): "The Predatory Transition from Ape to Man." International Anthropological and Linguistic Review, 1, pp. 201–217.
• Dart, Raymond A. and Craig, Dennis (1959): Adventures with the Missing Link. New York: Harper & Brothers (autobiography).
• Fagan, Brian. The Passion of Raymond Dart. Archaeology v. 42 (May–June 1989): p. 18.
• Johanson, Donald & Maitland Edey. Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990 ISBN 0-671-25036-1
• Alexander Murray, ed. (1996): Skill and Poise: Articles on skill, poise and the F. M. Alexander Technique. Collection of Raymond Dart's papers. Hardcover, 192+xiv pages, b/w illustrations, 234 x 156 mm, index, UK, STAT Books.

See also

• Hominidae
• Prehistoric warfare
• Human evolution
• List of fossil sites (with link directory)
• List of hominina fossils (with images)

References

External links

• Essay by C.K. Brain, "Raymond Dart and our African origins," accompanying the reprint of Raymond Dart's 1925 Nature article in A Century of Nature: Twenty-One Discoveries that Changed Science and the World, Laura Garwin and Tim Lincoln, eds.
• Biography of Raymond Dart on Minnesota State University, Mankato EMuseum website
• Biography of Raymond Dart in the TalkOrigins Archive.
• Raymond Dart: Biography in Famous Biologists at Macroevolution.net.