Witwatersrand University, labeled 260 c.c. (for the half-volume). A cast of 

 this reconstructed endocast was presented by Dart to University College, 

 London, where Zuckerman (1928) determined the volume of the total endo- 

 cast to be 500 c.c. Dart's (1929) paper cited no figure for the capacity. 



Keith stated that he had made "an exact model of half the brain" in 

 plasticine. It measured 225 c.c, giving 450 c.c. for the whole as "a minimum 

 size." Nevertheless, he was prepared to take 500 c.c. as "an impartial 

 estimate," and, in addition, he used the figure of 500 c.c. in computing the 

 "adult size" for Taung (Keith 1931, pp. 61-65). 



Two decades after the first publication Schepers (1946) attempted 

 further reconstructions and reported that they "gave results which varied 

 but little from this figure (500 c.c.)," which he stated, not quite precisely, 

 was that earlier claimed for it by Dart. As mentioned above, Dart's original 

 claim was 520 c.c. In fact, Schepers used the figure of 500 c.c. in his text 

 (p. 238) and of 520 c.c. in his Table 1 (p. 242). 



Le Gros Clark in 1947 stated that "Zuckerman's estimate of 500 c.c. is 

 sufficiently close [to Dart's original estimate] to be taken as confirmatory" 

 (Le Gros Clark 1947, p. 313). Still later, Le Gros Clark (1964, p. 133) 

 described the capacity as "rather more than 500 c.c." 



On the basis of these estimates by Dart, Zuckerman, Schepers, and Le 

 Gros Clark, I have cited 500 to 520 c.c. for the volume in my tables of esti- 

 mates of australopithecine cranial capacities (Tobias 1963, 1967a). 



Working in our Anatomy Department, Dr. R. L. Holloway, Jr. has 

 recently reopened the question of the cranial capacity of the Taung child, 

 and his new provisional reconstruction gives a smaller value.* With esti- 

 mates ranging on either side of 500 c.c, it would seem to be safest, for the 

 time being, to accept 500 c.c as an approximation of the cranial capacity of 

 the Taung child. 



The problem now arises of what cranial capacity the Taung individual 

 would have attained had he lived to adulthood. Dart was keenly aware of 



• Since the James Arthur Lecture was delivered, Holloway (1970b) has published his new 

 estimate for the endocranial capacity of the Taung child. Based on new reconstructions made by 

 him in the Anatomy Department in 1969, he has arrived at a figure of 405 c.c, the mean of the 

 capacities of his 2 most accurate reconstructions. This figure is well below the figure of 500 to 

 520 c.c. accepted by most workers up to the present but is closer to Sir Arthur Keith's original 

 rough estimate of "less than 450 c.c." When Holloway s estimate of 405 c.c. is corrected for the 

 juvenile age of the Taung child, he obtains an adult estimate of 440 c.c, exactly 100 c.c. less 

 than the latest adult estimate based on the old reconstruction. 



13 K 



