Robert Broom
FRS FRSE
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
(30 November 1866 6 April 1951) was a
British- South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n doctor and
palaeontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his
DSc DSC may refer to:
Academia
* Doctor of Science (D.Sc.)
* District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India
* Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine
Educational institutions
* Dalton State Col ...
in 1905 from the
University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
.
From 1903 to 1910, he was professor of zoology and geology at
Victoria College,
, South Africa, and subsequently he became keeper of
vertebrate palaeontology
Vertebrate paleontology is the subfield of paleontology that seeks to discover, through the study of fossilized remains, the behavior, reproduction and appearance of extinct animals with vertebrae or a notochord. It also tries to connect, by u ...
at the
South African Museum
The Iziko South African Museum is a South African national museum located in Cape Town. The museum was founded in 1825, the first in the country. It has been on its present site in the Company's Garden since 1897. The museum houses important A ...
,
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
.
Life
Broom was born at 66 Back Sneddon Street in
Paisley,
Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfr ...
, Scotland, the son of John Broom, a designer of calico prints and
Paisley shawls
Paisley shawls were a fashionable item of women's clothing in the 19th century made of intricately woven and delicate wool. Although known as the Paisley pattern, the teardrop motif originated in Persia and India, becoming popular in Europe—and ...
, and Agnes Hunter Shearer.
In 1893, he married Mary Baird Baillie, his childhood sweetheart.
In his medical studies at the University of Glasgow Broom specialised in obstetrics.
After graduating in 1895 he travelled to Australia, supporting himself by practising medicine. He settled in South Africa in 1897,
just prior to the
South African War. From 1903 to 1910, he was professor of Zoology and Geology at Victoria College, Stellenbosch (later
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...
), but was forced out of this position for promoting belief in evolution.
He established a medical practice in the
Karoo
The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...
region of South Africa, an area rich in
Therapsid
Therapsida is a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals, their ancestors and relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including limbs that were oriented more ...
fossils. Based on his continuing studies of these fossils and mammalian anatomy he was made a Fellow of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
in 1920. Following the discovery of the
Taung child
The Taung Child (or Taung Baby) is the fossilised skull of a young '' Australopithecus africanus''. It was discovered in 1924 by quarrymen working for the Northern Lime Company in Taung, South Africa. Raymond Dart described it as a new specie ...
he became interested in the search for human ancestors and commenced work on much more recent fossils from the dolomite caves north-west of Johannesburg, particularly
Sterkfontein Cave (now part of the
Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site). As well as describing many mammalian fossils from these caves he identified several
hominin
The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas).
The ...
fossils, the most complete of which was an
Australopithecine
Australopithecina or Hominina is a subtribe in the tribe Hominini. The members of the subtribe are generally ''Australopithecus'' (cladistically including the genus, genera ''Homo'', ''Paranthropus'', and ''Kenyanthropus''), and it typically in ...
skull, nicknamed
Mrs Ples
__NOTOC__
Mrs. Ples is the popular nickname for the most complete skull of an ''Australopithecus africanus'' ever found in South Africa. Many ''Australopithecus'' fossils have been found near Sterkfontein, about northwest of Johannesburg, in a r ...
, and a partial skeleton that indicated that Australopithecines walked upright.
Broom died in
Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
in 1951.
Contributions
Broom was first known for his study of
mammal-like reptiles
Pelycosaur ( ) is an older term for basal or primitive Late Paleozoic synapsids, excluding the therapsids and their descendants. Previously, the term ''mammal-like reptile'' had been used, and pelycosaur was considered an order, but this is ...
. After
Raymond Dart's discovery of the
Taung Child
The Taung Child (or Taung Baby) is the fossilised skull of a young '' Australopithecus africanus''. It was discovered in 1924 by quarrymen working for the Northern Lime Company in Taung, South Africa. Raymond Dart described it as a new specie ...
, an infant australopithecine, Broom's interest in palaeoanthropology was heightened. Broom's career seemed over and he was sinking into poverty, when Dart wrote to
Jan Smuts
Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...
about the situation. Smuts, exerting pressure on the South African government, managed to obtain a position for Broom in 1934 with the staff of the
Transvaal Museum
The Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, formerly the Transvaal Museum, is a natural history museum situated in Pretoria, South Africa. It is located on Paul Kruger Street, between Visagie and Minnaar Streets, opposite the Pretoria City Hal ...
in
Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
as an Assistant in
Palaeontology.
In the following years, he and John T. Robinson made a series of spectacular finds, including fragments from six hominins in
Sterkfontein, which they named ''Plesianthropus transvaalensis'', popularly called
Mrs. Ples
__NOTOC__
Mrs. Ples is the popular nickname for the most complete skull of an ''Australopithecus africanus'' ever found in South Africa. Many ''Australopithecus'' fossils have been found near Sterkfontein, about northwest of Johannesburg, in a r ...
, but which was later classified as an adult ''
Australopithecus africanus
''Australopithecus africanus'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived between about 3.3 and 2.1 million years ago in the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of South Africa. The species has been recovered from Taung, Sterkfonte ...
'', as well as more discoveries at sites in
Kromdraai and
Swartkrans
Swartkrans is a fossil-bearing cave designated as a South African National Heritage Site, located about from Johannesburg. It is located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and is notable for being extremely rich in archaeological ma ...
. In 1937, Broom made his
most famous discovery, by defining the robust hominin genus ''
Paranthropus'' with his discovery of ''
Paranthropus robustus
''Paranthropus robustus'' is a species of robustness (morphology), robust australopithecine from the Early Pleistocene, Early and possibly Middle Pleistocene, Middle Pleistocene of the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, about 2.27 to 0.87 (or, mo ...
''.
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
Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal
The Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology study published in a three- to five-year period." Named after Daniel Giraud Elliot, it was first awarded in 1917.
...
from the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
in 1946.
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."
Spiritual evolution
Broom was a
nonconformist
Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to:
Culture and society
* Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior
*Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity
** ...
and was deeply interested in the
paranormal
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...
and
spiritualism
Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and Mind-body dualism, dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (w ...
; he was a critic of
Darwinism
Darwinism is a scientific theory, theory of Biology, biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of smal ...
and
materialism. Broom was a believer in
spiritual evolution
Spiritual evolution, also called higher evolution, is the idea that the mind or spirit, in analogy to biological evolution, collectively evolves from a simple form dominated by nature, to a higher form dominated by the Spiritual or Divine. It is di ...
. In his book ''The Coming of Man: Was it Accident or Design?'' (1933) he claimed that "spiritual agencies" had guided
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
as animals and plants were too complex to have arisen by chance. According to Broom, there were at least two different kinds of spiritual forces, and psychics are capable of seeing them.
Broom claimed there was a plan and purpose in evolution and that the origin of ''
Homo sapiens
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
'' 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."
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.
Publications
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
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
of a species of Australian
blind snake
The Scolecophidia, commonly known as blind snakes or thread snakes, are an infraorder of snakes. They range in length from . All are fossorial (adapted for burrowing). Five families and 39 genera are recognized. The Scolecophidia infraorder is m ...
, ''
Anilios broomi''.
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Broom", p. 40).]
See also
*
List of fossil sites
This list of fossil sites is a worldwide list of localities known well for the presence of fossils. Some entries in this list are notable for a single, unique find, while others are notable for the large number of fossils found there. Many of t ...
''(with link directory)''
*
List of hominina fossils
The following tables give an overview of notable finds of hominin fossils and remains relating to human evolution, beginning with the formation of the tribe Hominini (the divergence of the human and chimpanzee lineages) in the late Miocene, roug ...
''(with images)''
*
Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research
The Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI) is a paleontological, paleoanthropological and archeological research institute operated through the Faculty of Science of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Previously know ...
*
John Talbot Robinson
John Talbot Robinson FRSSAf (10 January 1923 – 12 October 2001) was a distinguished South African hominin paleontologist. His most famous discovery (with Robert Broom) was the nearly complete fossil skull of the hominin species '' Australop ...
, co-discoverer of Mrs Ples.
*
PanAfrican Archaeological Association
The PanAfrican Archaeological Association (PAA) is a pan-African professional organisation for archaeologists, geologists and palaeoanthropologists.
History
The association was founded by Louis Leakey and its first congress was held in Nairo ...
Notes and references
External links
Biographies: Robert Broom TalkOrigins Archive
The TalkOrigins Archive is a website that presents mainstream science perspectives on the antievolution claims of young-earth, old-earth, and "intelligent design" creationists. With sections on evolution, creationism, geology, astronomy and homi ...
Robert Broom: A Short Bibliography of his Evolutionary Works, MPRInstitute.org site.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broom, Robert
1866 births
1951 deaths
20th-century British scientists
20th-century British zoologists
20th-century Scottish medical doctors
20th-century Scottish writers
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Fellows of the Royal Society
Non-Darwinian evolution
Paleoanthropologists
People from Renfrewshire
Physical anthropologists
Royal Medal winners
Scottish palaeontologists
Scottish scholars and academics
Scottish spiritualists
South African obstetricians
South African paleontologists
South African writers
Stellenbosch University faculty
Taxa named by Robert Broom
Theistic evolutionists
Wollaston Medal winners
Writers from Paisley, Renfrewshire
Presidents of the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science