塔翁

塔翁（Taung）是南非西北省的一个小镇。塔翁在当地原住民语言茨瓦纳语的意思是“狮子之地”，得名于当地过往一位名叫“狮子”（tau）的酋长。

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

埋藏学

白箭头所指处为出土之塔翁小童受鹰攻击的伤痕

当初塔翁小童发现之时，雷蒙德·达特提出了Osteo-Dento-Keratic文化假说，认为塔翁小童是被其他人科生物杀死的。其后，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.

参考书目

• 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)

参看

• 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