Robert Broom

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Robert Broom
South African Museum, Cape Town
PatronsJan Smuts
Author abbrev. (zoology)Broom
Signature
Robert Broom

Robert Broom

DSc in 1905 from the University of Glasgow
.

From 1903 to 1910, he was professor of zoology and geology at

South African Museum, Cape Town.[3][4][5][6]

Life

Broom was born at 66 Back Sneddon Street in

Paisley shawls, and Agnes Hunter Shearer.[7]

In 1893, he married Mary Baird Baillie, his childhood sweetheart.[8]

In his medical studies at the University of Glasgow Broom specialised in obstetrics.

Mrs Ples, and a partial skeleton that indicated that australopithecines walked upright.[9]

Broom died in Pretoria, South Africa in 1951.

Contributions

Broom was first known for his study of

Palaeontology
.

Broom has been described as "one of the great Karoo (and, in particular, therapsid) palaeontologists", having managed to describe 369 therapsid holotypes in his lifetime, which he ascribed to 168 new genera. Broom has a reputation as a "splitter" that has resulted in only around 57% of his holotypes still being considered valid as of 2003.[10]

In the following years, he and John T. Robinson made a series of spectacular finds, including fragments from six hominins in

Kromdraai and Swartkrans. In 1937, Broom made his most famous discovery, by defining the robust hominin genus Paranthropus with his discovery of Paranthropus robustus.[11]
These discoveries helped support Dart's claims for the Taung species.

For his volume, The South Africa Fossil Ape-Men, The Australopithecinae, in which he proposed the Australopithecinae subfamily, Broom was awarded the

National Academy of Sciences in 1946.[12]

The remainder of Broom's career was devoted to the exploration of these sites and the interpretation of the many early hominin remains discovered there. He continued to write to the 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."[13]

Spiritual evolution

Broom was a

Homo sapiens is the ultimate purpose behind evolution. According to Broom "Much of evolution looks as if it had been planned to result in man, and in other animals and plants to make the world a suitable place for him to dwell in."[15]

After discovering the skull of Mrs. Ples, Broom was asked if he excavated at random, Broom replied that spirits had told him where to find his discoveries.[16]

Research on the Khoisan

Broom had a noted interest in the

!Ora man, (catalogued as MMK 264), as well an unnamed 18 year old "bushman" from Langeberg (catalogued as MMK 283), who was photographed while alive at the request of Broom, despite this being against policy. The skeletons of both men were added to the collections of the McGregor Museum in 1921.[18]

Broom described the Khoisan peoples as a "

type specimen of the Korana race being the skeleton of Links.[18] Other contemporary anthropologists questioned this classification scheme, especially the Korana race. Broom later said that he had "invented the Korana". All such typological racial classification schemes are discredited today, due to being based on vague criteria, resulting in the rigid categorization ultimately being arbitrary. Anatomist Goran Štrkalj wrote that: "It is obvious that Broom's anthropological work was ... influenced by the racist stereotypes and prejudices of the day".[17]

Publications

Bust of Robert Broom and Mrs. Ples
Memorial plaque at the Sterkfontein caves

Among hundreds of articles contributed by him to scientific journals, the most important include:

  • "Fossil Reptiles of South Africa" in Science in South Africa (1905)
  • "Reptiles of Karroo Formation" in Geology of Cape Colony (1909)
  • "Development and Morphology of the Marsupial Shoulder Girdle" in Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1899)
  • "Comparison of Permian Reptiles of North America with Those of South Africa" in Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (1910)
  • "Structure of Skull in Cynodont Reptiles" in Proceedings of the Zoölogical Society (1911).
  • The South Africa Fossil Ape-Men, The Australopithecinae (1946).

Books

  • The origin of the human skeleton: an introduction to human osteology (1930)
  • The mammal-like reptiles of South Africa and the origin of mammals (1932)
  • The coming of man: was it accident or design? (1933)
  • The South African fossil ape-man: the Australopithecinae (1946)
  • Sterkfontein ape-man Plesianthropus (1949)
  • Finding the missing link (1950)

Legacy

Robert Broom is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Australian blind snake, Anilios broomi,[19] the Triassic archosauromorph reptile Prolacerta broomi, the rhinesuchid amphibian Broomistega and the Permian dicynodont Robertia broomiana.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Broom.

Notes and references

  1. JSTOR 768799
    .
  2. ^ "Robert Broom | South African paleontologist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  3. S2CID 21204241
    .
  4. PMID 14833380
    .
  5. PMID 14825857
    .
  6. PMID 14821559
    .
  7. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  8. ^ Findlay, George (1972). Dr. Robert Broom, F.R.S.; palaeontologist and physician, 1866-1951: a biography, appreciation and bibliography. A. A. Balkema.
  9. ^ a b c d "Robert Broom". South African History Online. 17 February 2011. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  10. ^ Wyllie, A. (2003). “A review of Robert Broom’s therapsid holotypes: have they survived the test of time?” Palaeontologia Africana 39: 1-19.
  11. ISBN 978-0-671-72499-3
    .
  12. ^ "Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal". National Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  13. ISBN 978-1-4391-4387-2
    .
  14. ^ Bowler, Peter J. (2001). Reconciling science and religion: the debate in the early-twentieth-century Britain. pp. 133–134.
  15. ISBN 0226476510
    .
  16. ^ Dreyer, Nadine (2006). A century of Sundays: 100 years of breaking news in the Sunday times, 1906–2006. p. 119.
  17. ^ a b c d Štrkalj, G. (2000). “Inventing Races: Robert Broom’s Research on the Khoisan“. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 37: 113-24.
  18. ^ a b c Morris, A.G. (1987). “The Reflection of the Collector: San and Khoi Skeletons in Museum Collections“. The South African Archaeological Bulletin 42(145): 12-22.
  19. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5
    . ("Broom", p. 40).

External links
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