taung
{{Short description|Town in North West Province, South Africa}}
{{Use South African English|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox settlement
| name = Taung
| pushpin_map = South Africa North West#South Africa
| coordinates = {{coord|27|33|45|S|24|44|53|E|region:ZA|display=inline,title}}
| subdivision_type = Country
| subdivision_name = South Africa
| subdivision_type1 = Province
| subdivision_name1 = North West
| subdivision_type2 = District
| subdivision_name2 = Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati
| subdivision_type3 = Municipality
| subdivision_name3 = Greater Taung
| subdivision_type4 = Main Place
| established_title = Established
| leader_title = Councillor
| area_total_km2 = 20.75
| population_total = 18289
| population_as_of = 2011
| population_density_km2 = auto
| demographics_type1 = Racial makeup (2011)
| demographics1_title1 = Black African
| demographics1_info1 = 98.8%
| demographics1_title2 = Coloured
| demographics1_info2 = 0.4%
| demographics1_title3 = Indian/Asian
| demographics1_info3 = 0.5%
| demographics1_title4 = White
| demographics1_info4 = 0.1%
| demographics1_title5 = Other
| demographics1_info5 = 0.2%
| demographics_type2 = First languages (2011)
| demographics2_title1 = Tswana
| demographics2_info1 = 89.6%
| demographics2_title2 = Xhosa
| demographics2_info2 = 2.8%
| demographics2_title3 = English
| demographics2_info3 = 1.5%
| demographics2_title4 = Sotho
| demographics2_info4 = 1.1%
| demographics2_title5 = Other
| demographics2_info5 = 5.0%
| timezone1 = SAST
| utc_offset1 = +2
| postal_code_type = Postal code (street)
| postal_code = 8584
| postal2_code_type = PO box
| postal2_code = 8584
| area_code_type = Area code
| area_code = 053
| module = {{Infobox UNESCO World Heritage Site
|child = yes
|official_name = Taung Skull Fossil Site
|part_of = Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa
|criteria = {{UNESCO WHS type|(iii)(vi)}}(iii)(vi)
|ID = 915bis-003
|coordinates = {{coord|27|37|10|S|24|37|59|E}}
|year = 1999
|extension = 2005
|area = {{cvt|158.7429|ha|acre}}
|buffer_zone = {{cvt|3,387|ha|acre}}
}}
}}
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 King of the Barolong people. Tau is the Tswana word for lion.{{Cite web |title=Taung |url=https://www.sa-venues.com/attractionsnwp/taung.php |website=www.sa-venues.com |access-date=2020-05-25 |archive-date=2020-12-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203155744/https://www.sa-venues.com/attractionsnwp/taung.php |url-status=live }}
Taung skull fossil site
{{see also|Taung Child}}
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 Jeffrey McKee {{Cite web |url=https://anthropology.osu.edu/people/mckee.95 |title=Jeffrey McKee |date=2014-01-22 |website=Department of Anthropology |language=en |access-date=2018-12-10 |archive-date=2018-12-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181210202649/https://anthropology.osu.edu/people/mckee.95 |url-status=live }} 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.{{Cite web |title=Taung fossil site |url=http://www.riddledchain.org/taung.htm |access-date=2021-01-19 |website=www.riddledchain.org |archive-date=2022-03-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328114957/http://www.riddledchain.org/taung.htm |url-status=live }}
Unlike the dolomitic caves near Johannesburg, South Africa and the site of Makapansgat, the Taung fossil sites are found in caves formed in a gigantic tufa flow coming off the dolomitic bedrock of the Kalahari escarpment.{{Cite web |title=Fossil sites in the Cradle of Humankind – Maropeng and Sterkfontein Caves |publisher=Official Visitor Centres for the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site |url=https://www.maropeng.co.za/content/page/fossil-sites-in-the-cradle-of-humankind |website=www.maropeng.co.za |language=en |access-date=2020-05-25 |archive-date=2020-04-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414195628/https://www.maropeng.co.za/content/page/fossil-sites-in-the-cradle-of-humankind |url-status=live }}
The Taung Child is among the most important early human fossils ever discovered. It was the first hominid to be discovered in Africa, a species later named Australopithecus africanus, supporting Charles Darwin's concepts that the closest living relatives of humans are the African apes. It furthermore demonstrated significant differences between reality and the fake skull of a proposed human ancestor from England known as the Piltdown Man or Eoanthropus. The little skull is hypothesized to be from an approximately three- to three-and-a-half-year-old child. The cast of the brain is preserved by the filling of the skull with limestone breccia. The skull is housed at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.{{Cite web |last=Mafika |date=2006-01-13 |title=Who killed the Taung child? |url=https://www.brandsouthafrica.com/investments-immigration/science-technology/mystery-of-the-taung-child-solved |access-date=2021-01-19 |website=Brand South Africa |language=en-US |archive-date=2020-11-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112035243/https://www.brandsouthafrica.com/investments-immigration/science-technology/mystery-of-the-taung-child-solved |url-status=live }}
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.{{Cite web |last=Armstrong |first=Sue |title=Taung Child 'fell from the sky' |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14719940-800-taung-child-fell-from-the-sky/ |access-date=2021-01-19 |website=New Scientist |language=en-US |archive-date=2021-01-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117183010/https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14719940-800-taung-child-fell-from-the-sky/ |url-status=live }}
Taung child.jpg|The Taung Child skull as seen when it was exhibited at the Maropeng visitor's centre at the Cradle of Humankind in early 2007
Taung1.jpg|The Taung Child skull with arrows pointing to possible Eagle-caused damage
Climate
{{Weather box|width=auto
|metric first=y
|single line=y
|collapsed = Y
|location = Taung, elevation {{convert|1100|m|ft|abbr=on}}, (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1998–2023)
|Jan record high C = 44.6
|Feb record high C = 40.1
|Mar record high C = 38.1
|Apr record high C = 35.3
|May record high C = 33.8
|Jun record high C = 30.3
|Jul record high C = 29.0
|Aug record high C = 33.2
|Sep record high C = 37.0
|Oct record high C = 40.1
|Nov record high C = 40.1
|Dec record high C = 43.5
|Jan record low C = 8.4
|Feb record low C = 8.3
|Mar record low C = 3.8
|Apr record low C = 0.0
|May record low C = -4.6
|Jun record low C = -6.2
|Jul record low C = -6.4
|Aug record low C = -4.5
|Sep record low C = -2.2
|Oct record low C = 1.5
|Nov record low C = 4.4
|Dec record low C = 9.9
|Jan high C = 34.7
|Feb high C = 33.2
|Mar high C = 31.8
|Apr high C = 28.5
|May high C = 25.7
|Jun high C = 22.9
|Jul high C = 22.9
|Aug high C = 26.1
|Sep high C = 30.0
|Oct high C = 32.8
|Nov high C = 33.3
|Dec high C = 35.0
| year high C =
|Jan mean C = 26.3
|Feb mean C = 25.4
|Mar mean C = 23.5
|Apr mean C = 19.8
|May mean C = 16.0
|Jun mean C = 12.5
|Jul mean C = 12.3
|Aug mean C = 15.3
|Sep mean C = 19.2
|Oct mean C = 22.8
|Nov mean C = 24.0
|Dec mean C = 26.3
| year mean C =
|Jan low C = 18.0
|Feb low C = 17.6
|Mar low C = 15.2
|Apr low C = 11.0
|May low C = 6.2
|Jun low C = 2.1
|Jul low C = 1.8
|Aug low C = 4.4
|Sep low C = 8.4
|Oct low C = 12.8
|Nov low C = 14.6
|Dec low C = 17.5
| year low C =
|precipitation colour = green
|Jan precipitation mm = 77.5
|Feb precipitation mm = 74.2
|Mar precipitation mm = 77.1
|Apr precipitation mm = 35.4
|May precipitation mm = 12.5
|Jun precipitation mm = 5.5
|Jul precipitation mm = 3.9
|Aug precipitation mm = 5.8
|Sep precipitation mm = 12.8
|Oct precipitation mm = 25.6
|Nov precipitation mm = 45.1
|Dec precipitation mm = 60.0
|year precipitation mm =
|unit precipitation days = 1.0 mm
| Jan precipitation days = 5.9
| Feb precipitation days = 5.3
| Mar precipitation days = 5.5
| Apr precipitation days = 2.9
| May precipitation days = 1.3
| Jun precipitation days = 0.5
| Jul precipitation days = 0.6
| Aug precipitation days = 0.6
| Sep precipitation days = 1.0
| Oct precipitation days = 2.5
| Nov precipitation days = 3.7
| Dec precipitation days = 4.5
| year precipitation days =
|source 1 = Starlings Roost Weather (precipitation 1898–2023){{cite web |url=http://starlingsroost.ddns.net/weather/worldclimate/graphs.php?climate=9120&code=SF003605120
|title= TAUNG, SF Climate: 1991–2020
|publisher=Starlings Roost Weather
|access-date= 27 December 2024}}{{cite web |url=http://starlingsroost.ddns.net/weather/worldclimate/graphs.php?climate=allyears&code=SF003605120
|title= TAUNG, SF Climate: All Years
|publisher=Starlings Roost Weather
|access-date= 27 December 2024}}
}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- 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)
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110715121030/http://www.profleeberger.com/files/taungbirdofpreyajpa.pdf L.R. Berger Am. J.Phys. Anth. 131:166-168 (2006)]
{{Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality}}
Category:Archaeological sites in South Africa
Category:Pliocene paleontological sites of Africa
Category:Caves of South Africa
Category:Landforms of North West (South African province)
Category:Populated places in the Greater Taung Local Municipality