Origins (Humans: An Evolutionary History)

A young man named Raymond Dart got dressed with special care one November day in 1924. He was getting ready to serve as best man at a friend’s wedding, which was going to take place at Dart’s home in Johannesburg, South Africa. Dart was almost ready, just about to fasten his collar, when someone delivered several crates of broken limestone rocks to the househe rocks were a gift from a geologist who had recently come from a limestone quarry at a place called Taung, about a day’s drive from Johannesburg. Dart had heard that the geol- ogist was going to visit the quarry, where explo- sives were being used to blast the limestone out of the ground. He had
asked the geologist to bring him any of the newly disturbed rocks that appeared to contain fossils ancient materi- als such as bones or plants that had turned to stone over time. Now the man had dropped off a load of rocks for Dart to examine.