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Whose fossil discoveries helped prove that human ancestors lived in Africa?

Human bodyEvolution

Quick Answer

Raymond Dart and later paleoanthropologists such as the Leakey family. Their finds in Africa were key to showing human evolution had African roots.

The Full Story

In 1924 Raymond Dart described Australopithecus africanus from the Taung Child in South Africa, an early fossil hominin. Later discoveries by Louis and Mary Leakey in East Africa, including finds in Olduvai Gorge, strengthened the case that human evolution began in Africa. Subsequent work by many scientists has confirmed Africa as the cradle of humankind. These discoveries changed long-held assumptions about where humans originated. They helped build the modern field of paleoanthropology.

Key Facts

1.Taung Child described in 1924
2.Olduvai Gorge became a major fossil site
3.Africa is now recognized as the origin of Homo sapiens

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"The fossils that turned Africa into the key to human origins."