| Site Map | Apes: From cave to Computer
Summary
In 1924, the first complete front of an extinct "ape" skull was discovered at the Buxton Limeworks quarry in the north-eastern Cape in South Africa.It was sent to Prof Raymond Dart, a paleontologist at the University of the Witwatersrand, who worked painstakingly with the skull for six weeks. When he had finished removing fragments of rock embedded in the skull, the result was awesome - it was the skull of a six year old child, with a smooth forehead and full set of milk teeth, lacking the canines and protruding jaw of an ape. The one million year old skull was named "Taung Baby" and was the first of many discoveries throughout Africa, concerning prehistoric man. This web site explores the discovery of prehistoric man through the years since 1924, and the way in which it does this is summarised below.
Timeline
The hundreds of discoveries throughout Africa have enabled scientists to compile what is hoped to be a complete list of the prehistoric men that have inhabited the continent at one time or another. Our timeline lists these ape-men, and their period of existence. It also links to pages about Australopithecines and Hominids, which have brief descriptions of each species.
Findings in Africa
Discoveries that are of note have taken place in Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa. This section of the site lists the discoveries in these countries, with slightly more detailed information when the discovery was considered to be of fairly great import. Examples of theses discoveries are Lucy, Mrs Ples and Little Foot.
The Handyman
As our title suggests, we are taking a good look at the technological advances made by ape-men over time. These are not very many - in actual fact, the only advances that we know of was man's ability to harness fire and make stone tools. All other advances came with the species of modern man, Homo sapiens sapiens.
Techniques used in the field
This is a fun section for all the future paleontologists out there. It gives details about how to extract fossils from digs, and then how to analyse them to discover how old, what gender and what species they are. It finishes off with a mini-quiz in which the user is given information, and is required to make deductions from it.
About Us
A brief note on the authors tells you more about us and how our team formed. Learn more about the creators of this site, and then e-mail us so we can learn more about you!
|