Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Science

3-million-year-old Taung Child once again shakes up our human family tree

A century after the Taung Child permanently altered our view of human origins, a new study published in npj Palaeoecosystems dates the famous fossil to between 2.96 and 3.03 million years old. Led by professor Gabriele Macho of the Archaeology, Environmental Changes and Geo-Chemistry (AMGC) research...

3-million-year-old Taung Child once again shakes up our human family tree
Image: Phys.org
A century after the Taung Child permanently altered our view of human origins, a new study published in npj Palaeoecosystems dates the famous fossil to between 2.96 and 3.03 million years old. Led by professor Gabriele Macho of the Archaeology, Environmental Changes and Geo-Chemistry (AMGC) research group at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the international research highlights that the human family tree in southern Africa was far more complex than previously assumed.

Originally published at Phys.org

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