Raymond Arthur Dart (1893-1988) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist. He graduated in medicine from Sydney in 1917 and later became a Professor of Anatomy in Johannesburg in 1923. In November 1924, Dart discovered the skull of a child near Taung in South Africa, which became known as the Taung skull. This fossil, estimated to be about 2 million years old, belongs to the species Australopithecus africanus, one of the earliest human-like creatures. This discovery challenged the scientific knowledge of the time, which believed that Asia was the site of the origin of man. Raymond continued teaching at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg until his retirement in 1958. The Institute for the Study of Man was founded there in his honour. The identification of the Taung skull is still regarded as a major breakthrough in the study of human evolution.