Taung

Taung
Taung Show map of North West (South African province) Taung Show map of South Africa Taung Show map of Africa  Taung shown within North West
Coordinates: 27°32′0″S 24°47′8″E / 27.53333°S 24.78556°E / -27.53333; 24.78556Coordinates: 27°32′0″S 24°47′8″E / 27.53333°S 24.78556°E / -27.53333; 24.78556
Country	South Africa
Province	North West
District	Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati
Municipality	Greater Taung
Area
• Total	20.75 km2 (8.01 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	18,289
• Density	880/km2 (2,300/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	98.8%
• Coloured	0.4%
• Indian/Asian	0.5%
• White	0.1%
• Other	0.2%
First languages (2011)
• Tswana	89.6%
• Xhosa	2.8%
• English	1.5%
• Sotho	1.1%
• Other	5.0%
Postal code (street)	8584
PO box	8584
Area code	053

The Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa

Taung Fossil
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Location	South Africa
Criteria	iii, vi
Reference	915
Coordinates	27°31′57″S 24°47′08″E / 27.5325°S 24.7856°E / -27.5325; 24.7856
Inscription	(Unknown Session)
Extensions	2005
Location of Taung
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Taung is a small town situated in the North West Province of South Africa. The name means place of the lion and was named after Tau, the chief of the Tswana speaking Legoya or BaTaung tribe. Tau is the Tswana word for lion.

In 1924, a skull (later named the Taung Child) was discovered by a quarry-worker in the nearby Buxton-limestone quarry. It was described by Raymond Dart in 1925 as the type specimen of Australopithecus africanus after he received a shipment of mostly fossil baboons, but also containing the skull and face of the child. Surprisingly, it would be many years before Dart would visit Taung to determine the exact location of the find. By that time, lime-mining had destroyed much of the area. Later in-situ excavations were conducted under the direction of Phillip Tobias and Jeff McKee of the University of the Witwatersrand, who worked at the site from approximately 1989 until 1993. Although they failed to find additional hominid specimens, they did recover many important fossil baboons and increased the understanding of the Taung geology and taphonomy significantly.

The Taung Child was at first proposed to have been killed by other hominids as part of Raymond Dart's Osteo-Dento-Keratic Culture hypothesis. However, 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.