The original Taung specimen of Australopithecus africanus, discovered at a lime quarry near Taung in South Africa in 1925, with Professor Raymond Dart's reconstruction (rear). Dart was the first to examine the skull, realising it represented an early stage of human evolution. The specimen comprises part of a juvenile skull, together with an endocast of the right half of the brain, formed by the petrification of sediments which filled the cranium after death. Although the overall configuration is ape-like, the teeth and braincast of the specimen have several hominid features and the foramen magnum is set well forward beneath the skull implying an erect, bipedal posture.