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Robert Broom (ca. 1910)
Portrait of Robert Broom (photo: ca 1910).
Robert
Broom (1866-1951) was Scottish-born medical doctor who became a
skilled vertebrate paleontologist in South Africa. In 1903 he was appointed Professor of
Zoology and Geology at Victoria College, Stellenbosch. The College had
a conservative religious ethos, however, and in 1910 Broom was dismissed
for
his evolutionary views. After establishing a medical practice in the
Karoo region of South Africa, he began to explore the area which is
rich in Middle and Late Permian fossils. Based on many findings of Therapsids or mammal-like reptiles, and
his writings on mammalian anatomy, he was made a Fellow of the Royal
Society in 1920.
While many of his fossil discoveries and most of his publications concerned Late Permian Therapsids, Broom is perhaps better known for his discoveries of hominid remains in the late 1930s. Following the 1925 discovery and publication of the Taung child (Australopithecus africanus) by Raymond Dart, Broom became friends with Dart, and grew interested in the search for human ancestors. Between 1936 and 1938 Broom made several major discoveries in Sterkfontein Cave northwest of Johannesburg. Therse included a complete A. africanus skull nicknamed Mrs. Ples, and a partial skeleton that indicated that Australopithecines (the name meaning "southern apes") walked upright. He also discovered the first fossils of the robust australopithecine, Paranthropus robustus, in a cave at Swartkrans, South Africa.
References:
Broom, R. 1905. Fossil Reptiles of South Africa. Science in South Africa.
Broom, R. 1909. Reptiles of Karroo Formation. Geology of Cape Colony
Broom, R. 1910 Comparison
of Permian Reptiles of North America with Those of South Africa. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.
Broom, R. 1911. Structure of Skull in Cynodont Reptiles.Proceedings of the Zoölogical Society (1911).
Broom, R. 1946. The South Africa Fossil Ape-Men, The Australopithecinae.
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