Final answer:
Raymond Dart identified the Taung child as an intermediate species between apes and humans, suggesting features indicative of bipedalism. He hesitated to call it a hominin due to its small brain size and ape-like skull shape. Dart's findings were criticized by his contemporaries, reflecting the skepticism of his time regarding human evolution.
Step-by-step explanation:
Raymond Dart, the discoverer of the Taung species, also known as Australopithecus africanus, concluded that these remains represented "an extinct race of apes intermediate between living anthropoids and man." Despite noting features that aligned more with humans, such as minimal prognathism, small canines, lack of a diastema, and the forward position of the foramen magnum which suggested bipedalism, Dart refrained from classifying it as a hominin because it had a long and narrow skull with a small brain size, and traits similar to those of modern humans were not as well-defined. When Dart presented his findings, he received significant criticism from the scientific community, as his hypothesis challenged the prevailing views of human evolution and met skepticism due to the brain size of the skull, which was comparable to that of a chimpanzee, and its resemblance to other known apes.