The hard evidence of alveolar bone loss in early hominids of southern Africa. A short communication.

Since the discovery at Taung of the first early hominid specimen to be recovered in Africa, designated as Australopithecus africanus, the South African Pliocene and earliest Pleistocene deposits of the Blaauwbank Valley (Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai) in the Transvaal and of Makapansgat in the northern Transvaal, have yielded the most spectacular fossilized hominid remains of the genus Australopithecus and associated fauna, together with some intriguing and fascinating specimens of the genus Homo.