Detailed analyzes of the upper part of the fossil skeleton known as Little Foot open a new window on the behavior of our ancestors, in a crucial period in which humans opened their evolutionary line from that of apes.
Behind humans there is a somewhat diffuse evolutionary line on how we became what we are. For centuries, humanity has sought answers about its origin, searching around the world for evidence that will give us clues as to how we got here. Perhaps the most well-known fossil skeleton is Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis, however, it is not the most complete or the oldest.
In 1994, small foot bones that belonged to Australopithecus aferensis were found in a cave in South Africa. Thanks to this, experts decided to name it ‘Little Foot’ or ‘Small Foot’. Since then, researchers have carried out different excavations to try to recover more parts of the skeleton, which is now more complete than Lucy.
The hominization puzzle
The creature, probably a female, forms a key piece in the hominization puzzle. The ‘Little Foot’ fossil is a rare specimen because it is a nearly complete skeleton of an Australopithecus individual much older than most other human ancestors. It lived about 3.67 million years ago and was around 1.30 meters tall.
It had legs long enough to walk on two limbs. But recent research on the upper part of the fossil has given indications of when we separated our evolutionary line from that of the .
The assembly of ‘Little Foot’ man was key to interpreting an early branch of the human evolutionary tree. Scientists at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California focused on the upper part of the fossil, which includes clavicles, shoulder blades and joints. They discovered that, although his lower limbs allowed him to walk bipedally, his shoulders were more similar to those of chimpanzees or gorillas.
Although its lower limbs show human features, the supporting arms are surprisingly suitable for hanging from or climbing branches rather than launching projectiles. The ‘Little Foot’ fossil provides the best evidence so far of how our human ancestors used their arms, more than three million years ago, concludes Kristian J. Carlson, lead author of the research.