Little Foot hominin fossil may be new species of human ancestor

Little Foot, one of the world’s most complete hominin fossils, may be a new species of human ancestor, according to research that raises questions about our evolutionary past.

Publicly unveiled in 2017, Little Foot is the most complete Australopithecus skeleton ever found. The foot bones that lend the fossil its name were first discovered in South Africa 1994, leading to a painstaking excavation over 20 years in the Sterkfontein cave system.

Prof Ronald Clarke, a paleoanthropologist at the University of the Witwatersrand, who led the team that excavated the skeleton, attributed Little Foot to the species Australopithecus prometheus . Others believed it was Australopithecus africanus , a species first described in 1925 and which had previously been found in the same cave system.