News From the Field

New instrument dates old skeleton; 'Little Foot' 3.67 million years old


April 1, 2015

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A skeleton named Little Foot is among the oldest hominid skeletons ever dated at 3.67 million years old, according to an advanced dating method. Little Foot is a rare, nearly complete skeleton of Australopithecus, first discovered 21 years ago in a cave at Sterkfontein in central South Africa. Stone tools found at a different level of the Sterkfontein cave also were dated at 2.18 million years old, making them among the oldest known stone tools in South Africa.Full Story

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Purdue University

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