On a Sagittal Section of the Skull of Australopithecus Africanus

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Abstract
That the Taungs skull represents the youthful form of a remarkably interesting kind of Ape has been made abundantly clear by the descriptions given of it by its discoverer and by my friend Dr. R. Broom. For fuller knowledge we must await the detailed account which Prof. R. A. Dart is now preparing, and the casts with which we hope that he will provide us. Meanwhile we may learn something from a preliminary sagittal section, which I owe to the kindness of Dr. Broom and the generosity of Prof. Dart, who permitted him to trace it. Fig. 1 (p. 2) is a reproduction of this section. The absence of any suggestion of a frontal torus, the small angle made by the nasion (ν) radius with the nasi-lambda (N.L.) axis, and the proximity of the nasion to the anterior termination of the brain will be seen at a glance. These are characters rather human than simian, and combine to give the forehead a striking human appearance, so much so as to suggest that ‘Homunculus’ might not inappropriately have been chosen for a surname. The significance of these and other features may be best illustrated by comparison with similar sections provided by other members of the Primates. But, first of all, it is necessary as a preliminary to point out the capital importance of confining our comparisons to skulls in one and the same stage of development. This will be best appreciated by reference to the following illustrations. In fig. 2 the

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