Discovery of Little Foot

Little Foot is a nearly complete skeleton of an Australopithecus, found in the Sterkfontein cave system in South Africa, and it is among the most complete early hominin skeletons ever discovered. The first foot bones were recognised by the palaeoanthropologist Ron Clarke among boxes of fossils from the cave, and he then located the rest of the skeleton still embedded in rock. The excavation was long and painstaking, and it took years to free the bones. Scientists disagree about its age and species: some estimates put it at around 3.7 million years, much older than other southern African australopithecines, while others suggest a younger date. Its study offers a rare look at the anatomy of an early human relative.

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