Dr. Broom effects a career change at the age of 68.

in #science7 years ago

Dr Robert Broom, with his intense obsession with anatomy and skulls as described in the last post was naturally overjoyed by Raymond Dart's discovery, the Taung child and had his own part to play in the controversy.

He would write later on the matter:

"In England, many took little interest in the discovery of what might be a being closely related to man's ancestors, but they were greatly interested in the pedantic question of whether the name Australopithecus was good Latin! Prof. Dart might or might not be a great anatomist, but they were sure he was not a great classical scholar. As if it mattered in the least."

"It makes one rub one's eyes. Here was a man who had made one of the greatest discoveries in the world's history - a discovery that may yet rank in importance with Darwin's Origin of Species; and English cultures treat him as if he had been a naughty schoolboy"

"I was never able to discover what were Prof. Dart's offences. Presumably the most serious was that when he found a very important skull he did not immediately send it off to the British Museum, where it would have been examined by an 'expert', and probably described ten years later, but boldly described it himself, and published an account within a few short weeks of the discovery."

The Taung child was not Broom's first brush with ancient human ancestors. He had examined the "Boskop Man" skull and claimed it to be a new species Homo Capensis in 1917. He had also followed the developments around "Rhodesian Man"(Homo Rhodesiensis) found in 1921, which is basically the Southern African equivalent of Neanderthal Man.


By J. Arthur Thomson. - http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20417/20417-h/20417-h.htm, Public Domain, Link

After examining the Taung child for himself he was convinced of its place in human ancestry.

By 68 years old Dr. Broom had had a prolific career as a paleontologist and thought of himself as the greatest paleontologist that ever lived and decided it was time to become the greatest paleoanthropologist too.

It was with this grand vision in mind that he started visiting known Limestone mines and caves in the area. Given where The Taung child had been found he reasoned this would be the place to most likely and given his age, quickly find Darwin's "missing link" between apes and man.

His hunch would prove spectacularly correct but he too would fall foul of the British scientific establishment.

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Fascinating how flat the skull looks from the teeth to the eye socket. Kind of vain to think he was the greatest paleontologist ever haha, I guess that view of himself lead to other great discoveries though. I personally think that it's okay to have self confidence to such an extent, if you are willing to back it up by how you live.

Hmmm.......bones!...:)...

Am still a novice in the world of history. I have study about the great Herodotus and other great archeology the Aristotle of great great Greek. This people have done great in the world of history

yes, you are right

yes, this is an eyeopener. Am not an history student but loves history. I love to know my source at the origin of man. I have read and read about how the stages of man's life,about from the early stage of man.

What would it be like to quit your job and start over in a more appealing career? If you are an older worker, you may think that a major career change would require overcoming too many obstacles to be worthwhile -- like age discrimination, new technology or a salary cut. But according to Helen Harkness, author of Don't Stop the Career Clock, the real obstacles to a midlife career change may reside in your own mind. Harkness argues that several myths surrounding midlife career changes keep people from pursuing their dream job. Which myths do you subscribe to

this is an awesome informational post and a great history.Some information are unknown.its a amazing and very important think you add this post also. I really impress i this post.

The history of anatomy begins at least at the beginning of 1600 BC, when the papyrus of anatomical sciences by ancient Egyptian civilization scientists, everyone would want to know about his ancestors

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Short but interesting. Haha!I'm tired of reading "novel" posts. Thanks for sharing it.

Thanks for sharing post. Love you buddy...❤️

Thanks for sharing this interesting and awesome post!