塔翁

塔翁（Taung）是南非西北省的一個小鎮。塔翁在當地原住民語言茨瓦纳语的意思是「獅子之地」，得名於當地過往一位名叫「獅子」（tau）的酋長。

The Taung Child skull as seen when it was exhibited at the Maropeng visitor's centre at the Cradle of Humankind in early 2007.

埋藏學

白箭頭所指處為出土之塔翁小童受鷹攻擊的傷痕

當初塔翁小童發現之時，雷蒙德·达特提出了Osteo-Dento-Keratic文化假說，認為塔翁小童是被其他人科生物殺死的。其後，later work by C.K. "Bob" Brain demonstrated that the child was probably killed by some sort of mammalian carnivore such as a leopard. Recently, however, studies of the associated baboons by Ron Clarke and Lee Berger, and identification of specific marks on the Taung Child skull have demonstrated that the Taung Child may have been killed and eaten by a large bird of prey.

參考書目

• P.V. Tobias, Dart Taung and the Missing Link (Inst. for the Study of Man in Africa, 1984)
• L.R. Berger and B. Hilton-Barber, In the Footsteps of Eve (National Geographic Press, 2001)
• L.R. Berger and B. Hilton-Barber, Field Guide to the Cradle of Humankind (Struik, 2001)
• L.R. Berger Am. J.Phys. Anth. 131:166-168 (2006)

參看

• 人科生物
• 更新世斯泰克方丹、斯瓦特科兰斯、科罗姆德拉伊和维罗恩斯的化石遗址