The Sterkfontein Caves are located just north of Krugersdorp and Johannesburg, South Africa. They consist of many limestone formations and an underground lake which are ideal for preservation. These magnificent caves have yielded many discoveries of our human evolutionary past such as a three to four million year-old hominid and its legendary “Little Foot” lying in a limestone pit in the Sterkfontein Caves.
Dr. Ron Clark was part of a team excavating the Sterkfontein Caves lead by Professor Phillip Tobias of South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand. Dr. Ron Clark found the four tiny foot bones in 1994 and he also found the tibia and the skull. Some of the other finds in the Sterkfontein Caves include Mrs. Ples, a perfect cranium of an adult australopithecine found in 1947.
The hominid appears to have been 1.22 meter tall (four feet) and part of the genus Australopithecus. The anatomy of the ankle joints show that the hominid was bipedal (able to walk upright) while maintaining the ability to effectively climb trees by the feature of a opposable big toe. The individual appears to have fallen down a 15 meter (45 foot) shaft which was later filled with the preserving limestone.
Another discovery at Sterkfontein is the skull of a so-called Taung child in 1924. This was the first fossil to be found that belonged to the genus Australopithecus which would have never been possible if not for the discovery in 1895 of the bone-bearing breccias. The discovery of the bones protected the caves from being mined for their limestone and other mineral content.
“Fossil Find Could Rewrite Human History.” BBC News.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_231000/231442.stm 28 Jan. 2001.
“Sterkfontein Caves.” http://www.wits.ac.za/fac/med/sterkf.html 28 Jan 2001.
“Tiny Foot Bones May Show a Giant Leap for Mankind.” The New York Times (July 28, 1995).
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/072895safrica-cave-bones.html 28 Jan. 2001.