John T. Robinson

John Talbot Robinson FRSSAf (10 January 1923 – 12 October 2001) was a distinguished South African hominin paleontologist. His most famous discovery (with Robert Broom) was the nearly complete fossil skull of the hominin species Australopithecus africanus, known as Mrs. Ples.

Education and career

Robinson was born in Elliot, South Africa to Theodore Clement Robinson and Florence Harriett Robinson (née Selby), both descendants of the British 1820 Settlers. He attended the University of Cape Town where he obtained a BSc in zoology and bacteriology in 1943 and an MSc (zoology) in 1944, with a thesis on the giant girdled lizard (Cordylus giganteus).