Taung Child Skull Replica

Description

Taung Child Skull Replica measures 3.1 in. Taung Child Skull Replica is museum quality polyurethane cast. Made in USA. Australopithecus africanus. From remains of earliest stages of human evolution.Taung, Bechuanaland. 1924. 3 pieces. Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home decor skull, or office decor skull.

The Taung Child or Taung Baby skull is the fossilised skull of a young Australopithecus africanus. It was discovered in 1924 by quarrymen working for the Northern Lime Company in Taung, South Africa.

The Taung skull or Taung Baby skull is in repository at the University of Witwatersrand. Dean Falk, a specialist in brain evolution, has called it “the most important anthropological fossil of the twentieth century.

The Taung Baby skull fossil has most of the face and mandible with teeth and, uniquely, a natural endocast of the braincase. It is estimated to be 2.3 million years old.

The Taung Child was originally thought to have been about six years old at death because of the presence of deciduous teeth, but it is now believed to have been about three or four, based on studies of rates of enamel deposition on the teeth.

There was some debate over the age of this creature initially because it was unclear if it grew at the speed of a human, or of an ape. Compared to an ape, it would have been aged about 4 years, and compared to a human, it would have been aged around 5 to 7 years old.

In 2006, Lee Berger announced the Taung Child probably was killed by an eagle or other large predatory bird since the similarity of damage to the skull and eye sockets of the Taung Child.

It is ofen seen in modern primates that are known to have been killed by eagles. There are talon marks in the eye as well as a depression along the child skull that is common in creatures that have been preyed upon by eagles.

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