Palaeontology

'Little Foot' fossil may belong to totally new species of human ancestor

By T.K. Randall
December 14, 2025

Image: Professor Ron Clarke with Skull of Little Foot
Credit: Wits University / Ron Clarke / CC BY-SA 3.0 (adapted) First discovered in 1994 in the Sterkfontein cave system, the bones took more than two decades to fully excavate, slowly revealing a member of an ancient species of extinct human ancestor.

Dubbed 'Little Foot' due to the fact that the first bones found were those of the feet, this prehistoric hominin was originally thought to be a member of the species Australopithecus prometheus.

Some doubt about this remained, however, with other experts arguing that it might instead be Australopithecus africanus - a species also previously found in the same cave system.

Now, though, a new study has turned the whole thing on its head by revealing that the specimen may in fact belong to an entirely new species of hominin that is totally unknown to science."We think it is a formerly unknown, unsampled species of human ancestor," said study leader Dr Jesse Martin of La Trobe University in Melbourne.

"It doesn't look like Australopithecus prometheus... but it also doesn't look like all of the africanus to come out of Sterkfontein."

"This thing will be part of a lineage of hominins, so it's possible that we have not just a point in our human family tree that we hadn't discovered before, but an entire limb of that tree."

In tribute to the original team who excavated the skeleton, however, the authors of the new study have decided not to reclassify the species themselves but to instead leave that up to its original discoverers.

"It is more appropriate that a new species be named by the research team that has spent more than two decades excavating and analysing the remarkable Little Foot specimen," they wrote.

"We hope they will view our suggestion in this regard as well-intentioned advice."

Source: The Guardian

Tags: Human, Ancestor