~ Masindo said amongst the most remarkable findings to have been made by numerous world famous scientists within the Cradle of Humankind is the famous Mrs. Ples, the first complete Australopithecus skull to be discovered and more recently, "Little Foot" a 4.17 million-year-old almost complete ape-man skeleton was also discovered in the same caves.

The first fossils at Sterkfontein came to light as early as 1936 and were the first adult Australopithecines or more specifically Australopithecus. Australopithecus africanus existed only in South Africa between 3.2 to 2.6 million years ago and was a very early hominid (i.e. a species that belongs in our family the Hominidae).

The Sterkfontein Caves are owned by the University of the Witwatersrand whose scientists have been responsible for the main excavations of the World Heritage Site. Sterkfontein has been excavated for more than 62 years in total, but it is amazingly still yielding up its secrets. The discovery just recently of the almost complete skeleton of 'Little Foot' bears ample testament to the wealth of information which is still to be gained from the cave deposits at Sterkfontein.


Keywords: south_africa travel