The Talgai Skull is a human fossil found on the Talgai Station, Queensland, Australia. It is the first direct proof of the Pleistocene antiquity of Homo sapiens in Australia. Radiocarbon dating suggests the Talgai skull is between 9,000 and 11,000 years old. Severe cracks in the skull led some observers to conclude that a blow to the head had been the cause of death. However, later investigation showed that the cracks were produced by expansion and contraction of the clay soil where the skull was found.
For more information, click here. Or, Try these sources:
- Smith, Stewart Arthur (1918). "The fossil human skull found at Talgai, Queensland". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B. 208 (348–359): 351–387. Can be read here.
- Allen, Jim (2010). "The Curious History of the Talgai Skull". Bulletin of the History of Archaeology. 20 (2): 4–12. Can be read here.
- The talgai skull: an investigation into the origin of the Australian Aborigines, Australian Broadcasting Commission, 19. For more information, click here.