Taung

The Taung, later known as the Mandalorians, were a warfaring, gray-skinned Near-Human species that controlled the planet Coruscant thousands of years before the rise of humans. One by one, they conquered the thirteen human nations of the planet, except for the native Zhell, who, though nearly exterminated in a volcanic explosion, managed to drive the Taung from Coruscant.

The Taung fled to Roon, where they remained for thousands of years, until, under the leadership of the legendary Mandalore the First, the Taung conquered a world which they renamed in honor of their leader, Mandalore. The species as a whole then also took the name, becoming the Mandalorians.

Physiology studies of the Taung determined their relation to the early Mandalorians. Without a doubt, the Mandalorians held the legacy of the Taung in high regard.

Eventually, as the Mandalorians became extinct, their name became associated with warriors, who, regardless of species, adhered to the tenets of the Mandalorians.

Behind the scenes
The name Taung may be a reference to the Taung Child, a fossil skull which was the first known example of the early hominind Australopithecus africanus. A. africanus may have been remote ancestors of humans, just as the Taung of Coruscant were precursors of the Mandalorians.