Looking for the origins of the human brain: The role of South Africa in the history of palaeoneurology

Amélie Beaudet; Edwin de Jager; Mirriam Tawane; Brendon Billings

doi:10.17159/sajs.2025/18604

Authors

Amélie Beaudet 1.Laboratory Paleontology Evolution Paleoecosystems Paleoprimatology (PALEVOPRIM), University of Poitiers and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Poitiers, France; 2.Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; 3.School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9363-5966
Edwin de Jager Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3199-8566
Mirriam Tawane National Heritage Council, Pretoria, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5265-7846
Brendon Billings School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8443-0758

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2025/18604

Keywords:

Taung Child, Australopithecus, brain evolution, brain endocasts, ethics

Abstract

In 1925, Raymond Arthur Dart published his description and interpretations of the ‘Taung Child’ in the journal Nature, including a description of the natural brain endocast associated with the face and mandible. Details preserved in the endocast of the Taung Child have opened critical questions and debates about how the human brain evolved, and how to identify and study evidence of brain changes from fossil hominin crania. In this paper, we review and synthesise methodological innovations (how do we study fossil hominin brains?) and critical conceptual shifts (how did the hominin brain evolve?) triggered by the discovery of the Taung Child. In particular, we detail the impact of the study of the well-preserved crania and natural endocasts from the southern African hominin-bearing sites on our understanding of brain evolution and the integration of newly developed analytical tools into research in palaeoneurology (e.g. imaging techniques, 3D modelling). Additionally, we examine how the use of digital replicas of fossil hominin endocasts and the need to study extant human brains to form a comparative platform might raise questions about research practices (e.g. study and exhibition of fossil and extant human brains) and management of such invaluable heritage resources (e.g. data sharing). We finally consider how our view of human brain evolution, and in particular the putative uniqueness of the hominin brain, has changed over the last century.

Significance:

We review and synthesise methodological innovations and critical conceptual shifts triggered by the discovery and description of the brain endocast of the ‘Taung Child’ by R.A. Dart in 1925. In particular, we detail the impact of the study of the well-preserved southern African hominin crania and natural endocasts on our understanding of brain evolution and the integration of newly developed analytical tools into palaeoneurology. Then, we examine how the use of digital replicas and the need to study extant human brains might raise questions about research practices and management of such invaluable heritage resources.