Читать книгу (101 things to know when you go) ON SAFARI IN AFRICA - Patrick Brakspear - Страница 13

Inside the Sterkfontein Caves, just 45 minutes from Johannesburg in South Africa, were discovered the much celebrated bones of ‘Little Foot’, a nearly intact skeleton of an Australopithecus africanus – hominids believed to be the immediate predecessors of the genus Homo, to which we Homo sapiens belong. Little Foot is dated at 4 million years old; and another fossil found at the site, ‘Mrs. Ples’, is dated at 3.5 million years. This makes them the oldest Hominid bones ever found by paleontologists. It is this site, and that at Olduvai in Tanzania, that prompts many scientists to call Africa the “Cradle of Humankind” – the place where our ancestors evolved.

‘Little Foot’ was short and walked upright, had a small brain and small canines, and was thought to be primarily a vegetarian. As Hominids evolved over the millennia, their height and brain size increased; they began to make tools to hunt animals for meat; develop the means to control fire, and gain the capacity to speak. We humans – Homo sapiens – appeared on the scene only about 30,000 years ago, a mere fraction of the age of ‘Little Foot’.

In terms of our ability to trace and understand our origins, Sterkfontein is of monumental importance.