Editing Human evolution (section)

=== First fossils ===
A major problem in the 19th century was the lack of [[Transitional fossil|fossil intermediaries]]. [[Neanderthal]] remains were discovered in a limestone quarry in 1856, three years before the publication of ''On the Origin of Species'', and Neanderthal fossils had been discovered in Gibraltar even earlier, but it was originally claimed that these were the remains of a modern human who had suffered some kind of illness.{{sfn|Montgomery|1988|pp=95–96}} Despite the 1891 discovery by [[Eugène Dubois]] of what is now called ''Homo erectus'' at [[Trinil]], [[Java]], it was only in the 1920s when such fossils were discovered in Africa, that intermediate species began to accumulate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shipman |first1=Pat |last2=Storm |first2=Paul |date=2002 |title=Missing links: Eugène Dubois and the origins of paleoanthropology |journal=Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=108–116 |doi=10.1002/evan.10021 |s2cid=84889438 |issn=1520-6505}}</ref> In 1925, [[Raymond Dart]] described ''[[Australopithecus africanus]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dart |first=Raymond |author-link=Raymond Dart |date=February 7, 1925 |title=''Australopithecus africanus'': The Man-Ape of South Africa |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=115 |issue=2884 |pages=195–199 |doi=10.1038/115195a0 |issn=0028-0836 |bibcode=1925Natur.115..195D |s2cid=4142569 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The [[Type (biology)|type specimen]] was the [[Taung Child]], an australopithecine infant which was discovered in a cave. The child's remains were a remarkably well-preserved tiny skull and an [[endocast]] of the brain.

Although the brain was small (410&nbsp;cm<sup>3</sup>), its shape was rounded, unlike that of chimpanzees and gorillas, and more like a modern human brain. Also, the specimen showed short [[Canine tooth|canine teeth]], and the position of the [[foramen magnum]] (the hole in the skull where the spine enters) was evidence of [[bipedal]] locomotion. All of these traits convinced Dart that the Taung Child was a bipedal human ancestor, a transitional form between apes and humans.