Dart, Raymond Arthur (1893 - 1988)

Summary

Raymond Dart was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist who spent most of his working life in South Africa. He is best-known for his elucidation in 1924 of the first fossil found of Australopithecus africanus, the fossil being the skull of an infant discovered at Taungs (later Taung) north of Kimberley, South Africa. Dart's assessment was that this skull was a missing link between apes and humans, publishing his findings in Nature in 1925. His work, after being ridiculed for over 20 years, was finally accepted. Dart was embroiled in further controversy over his theories, published in an extended series of articles between 1949 and 1965, on the adaptation of animal bones by ape-men to kill animals for eating. Dart was for 35 years Professor of Anatomy at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg where he was instrumental in establishing the Faculty of Medicine and served as Dean for many years.

Details

Chronology

1914

Education - BSc, University of Queensland

1916

Education - MSc, University of Queensland

1917

Education - ChM, MB, University of Sydney

1917

Career position - Medical Officer, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney

1918 - 1919

Military service - Captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps

1919

Career position - Senior demonstrator in anatomy, University College, London

1920 - 1921

Award - Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.

1921

Career position - Lecturer, University College, London

January 1923 - 1958

Career position - Professor of Anatomy, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

1925 - 1943

Career position - Dean, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

1927

Education - MD, University of Sydney

1930 - 1958

Award - Fellow, Royal Society of South Africa

1956

Award - Honorary Doctorate, Univof Natal, South Africa

1958 -

Career position - Emeritus Professor, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

1958

Life event - Retired

1965

Award - Honorary Doctorate, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

1966 - 1986

Career position - Lecturer and researcher (six months per year), Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Dart, Raymond A. and Craig, Dennis, Adventures with the missing link (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1959), 255 pp. Details
• Wheelhouse, Frances and Smithford, Kathaleen S., Dart: scientist and man of grit (Sydney: Transpareon Press, 2001), 361 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Tobias, Phillip V., 'Dart, Raymond Thomas (1893-1988), anatomist and anthropologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 17: 1981 - 1990 A-K, Diane Langmore, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2007), pp. 302-303. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dart-raymond-arthur-12402. Details

Journal Articles

• Dart, R. A., 'Australopithecus africanus: the man-ape of South Africa', Nature, 115 (2884) (1925), 195-9. Details
• Dart, R. A., 'Recollections of a reluctant anthropologist', Journal of human evolution, 2 (1973), 417-27. Details
• Derricort, Robin, 'The enigma of Raymond Dart', International journal of African historical studies, 42 (2) (2009), 257-82. Details
• Farley, Simon, 'On the origins of a man: Raymond Arthur Dart's school and university years in Queensland', Queensland History Journal, 26 (3) (2025), 159-71. Details
• Geffen, Laurie, 'A Queenslander who revolutionised the study of human evolution: a personal memoir of Raymond Dart', Queensland History Journal, 26 (3) (2025), 172-80. Details
• Geffen, Laurie and Spencer, Nick J., 'Early Australian neuroscientists and the tyranny of distance', Journal of the history of the neurosciences, 33 (1) (2024), 57-72. https://doi.org/10.1080/0964704X.2023.2232824. Details
• Pearn, John, 'The Dart legacy', Queensland History Journal, 26 (3) (2025), 187-98. Details
• Pearn, John, 'Introduction: Professor Raymond Arthur Dart, 1893-1988', Queensland History Journal, 26 (3) (2025), 157-8. Details
• Strkalj,, G. and Tobias, P. V., 'Raymond Dart as a pioneering primatologist', HOMO: journal of comparative human biology, 59 (2008), 271-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchb.2008.06.002. Details
• Tobias, P. V., ' In memory of Raymond Arthur Dart FRSSAf', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 48 (1) (1992), 183-5. https://doi.org/10.1080/00359199209520261. Details
• Westaway, Michael C., Manne, Tina, Bol, Benny and Jato, Denis, 'A century of Australopithecus africanus: Raymond Dart, human origins and the place of Africa', Queensland History Journal, 26 (3) (2025), 199-209. Details

Resources

• 'Dart, Raymond Arthur (1893 - 1988)', S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science, 2002, https://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=655. Details