Editing Robert Broom (section)

== Contributions ==
Broom was first known for his study of [[therapsid]]s. After [[Raymond Dart]]'s discovery of the [[Taung Child]], an infant australopithecine, Broom's interest in palaeoanthropology was heightened. Broom's career seemed over and he was sinking into poverty, when Dart wrote to [[Jan Smuts]] about the situation. Smuts, exerting pressure on the South African government, managed to obtain a position for Broom in 1934 with the staff of the [[Transvaal Museum]] in [[Pretoria]] as an Assistant in [[Palaeontology]].

Broom has been described as "one of the great Karoo (and, in particular, therapsid) palaeontologists", having managed to describe 369 therapsid holotypes in his lifetime, which he ascribed to 168 new genera. Broom has a reputation as a "[[Lumpers and splitters|splitter]]" that has resulted in only around 57% of his holotypes still being considered valid as of 2003.<ref>Wyllie, A. (2003). “[https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39674425.pdf A review of Robert Broom’s therapsid holotypes: have they survived the test of time?]” ''Palaeontologia Africana'' 39: 1-19.</ref>

In the following years, he and John T. Robinson made a series of spectacular finds, including fragments from six hominins in [[Sterkfontein]], which they named ''Plesianthropus transvaalensis'', popularly called [[Mrs. Ples]], but which was later classified as an adult ''[[Australopithecus africanus]]'', as well as more discoveries at sites in [[Kromdraai]] and [[Swartkrans]]. In 1937, Broom made his [[SK 48|most famous discovery]], by defining the robust hominin genus ''[[Paranthropus]]'' with his discovery of ''[[Paranthropus robustus]]''.<ref name="JohansonEdey1990">{{cite book|last1=Johanson|first1=Donald |last2=Edey|first2=Maitland |title=Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind|url=https://archive.org/details/lucybeginningsof0000joha|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/lucybeginningsof0000joha/page/57 57]|year=1990|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-671-72499-3}}</ref> These discoveries helped support Dart's claims for the Taung species.

For his volume, ''The South Africa Fossil Ape-Men, The Australopithecinae'', in which he proposed the Australopithecinae subfamily, Broom was awarded the [[Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal]] from the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] in 1946.<ref name=Elliot>{{cite web|title=Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal|url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_elliot|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|access-date=15 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727135304/http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_elliot|archive-date=27 July 2011}}</ref>

The remainder of Broom's career was devoted to the exploration of these sites and the interpretation of the many early hominin remains discovered there. He continued to write to the last. Shortly before his death he finished a monograph on the Australopithecines and remarked to his nephew:<br />
::"Now that's finished ... and so am I."<ref name="Morell2011">{{cite book|last=Morell|first=Virginia|title=Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TKatWz1z3r8C&pg=PA188|year=2011|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4391-4387-2|page=188}}</ref>