Raymond Arthur Dart ( 4 February 1893 -- 22 November 1988 ) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist , who worked for much of his life in South Africa . Raymond Arthur Dart ( 4 February 1893 -- 22 November 1988 ) was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist , best known for his involvement in the 1924 discovery of the first fossil ever found of Australopithecus africanus , an extinct hominid closely related to humans , at Taung in Northwestern South Africa .