Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Dart. In November 1924, Young inspected the site where the baboon
skull had been found. He selected additional fossils and rocks recovered
from the same formation by a quarryman by the name of de Bruyn, who
of a braincase (an endocranial cast, or endocast, that resembles a brain)
and some separate rocks that were embedded with fragments of bone
were among the specimens that Young chose. At his request, they were
sent to Dart.
In his 1959 memoir, Dart vividly recalled the momentous day in
November 1924 when he was standing by a window in his dressing
room, struggling to put on a stiff-winged collar in preparation for the
wedding of C. F. Beyers and Mira Rivet, which was to take place in his
home. He spied two men from the South African Railways staggering
up his driveway with two large wooden boxes. Because this “delightful
and racy account” is one of the most engaging and romantic descrip-
at some length:
My Virginia-born wife Dora . . . had noticed the men with the boxes and
rushed in to me in something of a panic. “I suppose those are the fossils
you've been expecting,” she said. “Why on earth did they have to arrive
today of all days?” She fixed me with a business-like eye. “Now Raymond,”
she pleaded, “the guests will start arriving shortly and you can't go delving
in all that rubble until the wedding's over”. . . . My wife had made the most
elaborate arrangements possible for the reception . . . and had gone to spe-
cial pains to ensure that my London-cut morning clothes were extracted
from brown paper and mothballs, and that in general my normally casual
appearance would be smartened up so as not to disgrace my role as best
man. At the time, however, this seemed of little importance when I con-
sidered the exciting anthropological bits and pieces that the boxes from
Taungs might contain. As soon as my wife had left to complete her dressing
I tore the hated collar of and dashed out to take delivery of the boxes. . . .
Impatiently I wrestled with the lid of the second box . . . little guessing
that from this crate was to emerge a face that would look out on the world
after an age-long sleep of nearly a million years. As soon as I removed
the lid a thrill of excitement shot through me. On the very top of the rock
