Final answer:
Piltdown Man's exposure as a forgery in 1953 helped legitimize the significance of the Taung child fossil in understanding human evolution. The Taung child's bipedal traits confirmed Africa's role as the origin of hominins, marking a pivotal point in paleoanthropology.
Step-by-step explanation:
The discovery of Taung child, a Australopithecus africanus, played a crucial role in shaping the understanding of human evolution. Prior to Taung child's acceptance, the Piltdown Man hoax, which was originally thought to be the 'missing link' between humans and apes, misled the scientific community. The Piltdown Man was a supposed fossil hominin uncovered in England in 1912, but it was later revealed to be a forgery combining a human cranium with an orangutan's jaw and teeth. The exposure of this fraud in 1953 helped to pave the way for the more accurate acceptance of legitimate hominin fossils, like that of the Taung child.
The Taung child's characteristics, such as the forward position of the foramen magnum indicating bipedalism and upright posture, contributed to its recognition as a genuine link in human ancestry. This was a stark contrast to the misleading traits of the Piltdown skull. The discovery of the Taung child thus served as a turning point that redirected the focus from Europe to Africa as the cradle of humankind and highlighted the significance of bipedality as a key feature of early hominins.