PrehistoryPliocene · Taung, North West Province, South Africa
Taung Child, the fossil that put human origins in Africa, is about 3 million years old
A century after its discovery, a new study dates the famous skull and argues that southern Africa held several hominin species at once.
In brief 3 key points
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- The Taung Child is dated to between 2.96 and 3.03 million years old
- Several adult fossils grouped with it as Australopithecus africanus do not match its growth pattern
- Fossil pollen shows it lived in a wetter, forested landscape than South Africa today
The Taung Child, the fossil that first showed humans have their origins in Africa, is between 2.96 and 3.03 million years old, a new study finds. The work was published in Nature.
It was led by Gabriele Macho of the Archaeology, Environmental Changes and Geo-Chemistry research group at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), with an international team.
One fossil, one species
The skull was found in South Africa in 1924. It is the type specimen of Australopithecus africanus, the fossil that defines the species. But no firm criteria were ever set to classify later finds, so the Taung Child remains the only fossil definitively linked to it.
The team studied tooth structure and the growth of the brain and teeth. Several adult fossils long grouped under Australopithecus africanus do not follow the Taung Child's pattern of development. Differences in brain development suggest that several hominin species lived in the Sterkfontein region, at the same time or one after another.
“The human family tree wasn't a neat, straight trunk—it was a chaotic, tangled bush driven by climate shifts.”
Gabriele Macho, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Wet and dry cycles
The researchers link this variety to climate. Repeated wet and dry cycles changed the landscape of southern Africa. As habitats grew and shrank, populations became isolated, diverged and met again.
The region sat on the boundary between tropical and temperate ecosystems, where species repeatedly met and hybridised, the team says.
Fossil pollen shows the Taung Child lived in a much wetter, forested setting than South Africa today. Some of the tree species now grow hundreds of kilometres to the north-east.
Sources (1)
Peer-reviewed paperfrom Vrije Universiteit Brussel
- Taung Child fossil dated to about 3 million years old (EurekAlert! (Vrije Universiteit Brussel))
Paper: Macho et al., Nature (2026), DOI 10.1038/s44513-026-00008-2
Edited by Guiseppe Weijermars
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