Sterkfontein sits within the Cradle of Humankind UNESCO World Heritage Site and has produced around a third of all early hominid fossils ever found worldwide, including the famous skull "Mrs Ples." Little Foot, an Australopithecus, took paleoanthropologist Ronald Clarke and his team roughly 20 years to fully excavate from solid rock. Recent dating research pushed its age back more than a million years earlier than once thought, making it older than the famous "Lucy" fossil from Ethiopia.
Source: University of the Witwatersrand
Frequently Asked Questions
How was Little Foot discovered and excavated?
Palaeontologist Ronald Clarke first spotted four tiny foot bones in a box of unsorted fossils at Wits University in 1994, then traced matching bones to a cave wall at Sterkfontein, where the skeleton was painstakingly chipped out of solid rock over about two decades.
Why does Little Foot's age matter so much to scientists?
Confirming it as one of the oldest and most complete Australopithecus skeletons helps researchers understand how early human ancestors walked, climbed, and evolved millions of years before modern humans existed.
How does this fossil site affect South Africa today?
The Cradle of Humankind remains an active dig and a major tourist and research site, drawing scientists and visitors from around the world and reinforcing southern Africa's central place in the story of human origins.