Robert Broom

Robert Broom

ProfessorRobert Broom(Paisley,30 November 1866 – 6 April 1951) was aScottish,and laterSouth African,doctor andpalaeontologist.

He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from theUniversity of Glasgow.In 1893 he married Mary Baird Baillie.

From 1903 to 1910 he was Professor ofZoologyandGeologyatVictoria College,Stellenbosch,South Africa, and subsequently he became keeper ofvertebratepalaeontologyat the South African Museum,Cape Town.

Contributions

Broom was first known for his study ofmammal-like reptiles.AfterRaymond Dart's discovery of theTaung Child,an infantaustralopithecine,Broom's interest in palaeoanthropologywas heightened. Broom's career seemed over and he was sinking into poverty, when Dart wrote toJan Smutsabout the situation. Smuts put pressure on the South African government, and managed to get a position for Broom. In 1934 he joined the staff of theTransvaal MuseuminPretoriaas Assistant in Palaeontology.

In the following years, he and John T. Robinson made a series of spectacular finds, including fragments from sixhominidsinSterkfontein,which they namedPlesianthropus transvaalensis,but which was later classified as an adultAustralopithecus africanus,as well as more discoveries atsitesinKromdraaiandSwartkrans.

In 1937, Broom made his most famous discovery ofParanthropusrobustus.These discoveries helped support Dart's claims for the Taung species.

The remainder of Broom's career was devoted to the exploration of these sites and the interpretation of the many early hominid remains discovered there. For his volume,The South Africa fossil ape-men, the Australopithecinae,in which he proposed the Australopithecinae subfamily, Broom was awarded theDaniel Giraud Elliot Medalfrom theNational Academy of Sciencesin 1946.He continued to write to the very last. Shortly before his death he finished a monograph on the Australopithecines and remarked to his nephew:

"Now that's finished... and so am I".

Assessment of his work

"More than any scientist before or since, Broom's work onAustralopithecusfundamentally revised the study of fossil man... The significant point is that Broom assigned all except one of these to a single zoologicalsubfamily– the australopithecines, and made it quite clear that [they] were good candidates for the ancestry of mankind ".

Books

• Broom R. 1930.The origin of the human skeleton: an introduction to human osteology.Witherby, London.
• Broom R. 1932.The mammal-like reptiles of South Africa, and the origin of mammals.Witherby, London.
• Broom R. 1946.The South Africa fossil ape-men, the Australopithecinae.
• Broom, R. 1950.Finding the missing link.Watts, London.