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size began to increase suddenly around 2 million years ago. Instead, it
appeared that the increase had started much earlier (perhaps before
3  million years ago) and then continued more or less steadily during
the course of hominin evolution. We also observed that the shapes of
certain parts of the temporal and frontal lobes of Australopithecus africa-
nus were advanced compared with those of Paranthropus, even though
the sulcal patterns of both kinds of hominin were completely apelike.
This suggested that Holloway had been right about the brains of at least
some australopithecines being neurologically reorganized despite their
small, apelike size.
The long debate that has been characterized with Dart, other great
men, and Holloway on one side versus Falk on the other is in need
of serious reassessment, however. As discussed below, I recently stud-
ied Raymond Dart's unpublished manuscripts, illustrations, and per-
sonal papers and learned a good deal about what he really thought about
Taung's endocast in particular and australopithecine brain evolution in
general. To my utter astonishment, Dart's papers revealed that he and
I independently provided the same identifications for most of the sulci
that appear on Taung's endocast. In contrast to Holloway's views about
mosaic brain evolution, Dart concluded that australopithecine brains
evolved in a more global manner . 17 In other words, Dart and I shared the
view that the hind end of the brain did not evolve ahead of the rest of it.
revelations in the wits archives
In July 2008, I traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa, to visit the Uni-
versity of Witwatersrand Archives and to learn more about Raymond
Dart's announcement of Taung in 1925 and the controversy that it gen-
erated among the public and scientists alike. Why were people so upset?
How did the controversy affect Dart personally and scientifically? Did
it cause him to suspend or modify his research —and, if so, how? As I
mentioned in the previous chapters, Dart's unpublished materials pro-
vided the answers I was seeking.
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