Little Foot
A near-complete australopith skeleton takes twenty years to extract from South African cave rock.
- When
- Known to
- ± 160 thousand years
- Era
- Pliocene, Cenozoic
StW 573, found in the Sterkfontein caves, is the most complete australopith skeleton known — far more so than Lucy — including a full skull, an articulated hand and arm, and the leg and foot bones that gave it its nickname. It was excavated over some twenty years from concrete-hard breccia. Its date has been contested, with estimates ranging from 2.2 to 3.67 million years; the older figure, from cosmogenic nuclide dating, is now widely accepted. Its arm is longer than its leg, which is unusual among australopiths.