born Feb. 4, 1893, Toowong, Brisbane, Queen., Austl.
died Nov. 22, 1988, Johannesburg, S.Af.
Australian-born South African physical anthropologist and paleontologist.
In 1924, when Asia was still believed to have been the cradle of humankind, Dart's discovery of the so-called Taung skull near the Kalahari substantiated hominid forms would be found in Africa. Dart named the skull and established it as the type specimen of a new genus and species, Australopithecus africanus (see Australopithecus ). He lived to see his findings corroborated by additional discoveries that firmly established Africa as the site of human origins. Dart taught at the University of Witwatersrand from 1923 to 1958.