221:. After years of excavating and exploring, in 1994, Clarke made a profound discovery after finding four Australopithecus bones that were joined together. The discovery that these four bones were fragments of a foot led the excavation team to nickname their finding "Little Foot". Three years later, Clarke’s excavation team were able to find more fragments of "Little Foot", which included the tibia and other parts of the legs. After this discovery, Clarke and his team excavated the rest of the cave in order to find the missing fragments of "Little Foot". Throughout the years excavating, Clarke was able to nearly fully assemble the Australopithecus skeleton in the Sterkfontein Cave.
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more bones encased in the breccia. A mandible was found still attached to the cranium. These bones allowed him to conclude that the mandible had ape-like features and that there were likely other limb bones deeper in the breccia. He soon after found a portion of the skull of "Little Foot". The skull that Clarke discovered was the most complete skull of an
Australopithecus up to that point. From these bones, Clarke was able to conclude that the skeleton was approximately 3.5 million years old.
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inside the
Silberberg Grotto and found a hominid humerus. After finding the humerus, a cast was made and the team continued to search for more bones. Two assistants took the casts around the cave to try and find a match to the ends. After searching deeper in the cave, the team was able to discover
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Ronald J. Clarke excavated the
Sterkfontein Cave with two South African anthropologists, Nkwane Molefe and Stephen Motsumi in 1994. Clarke used hammers and chisels in order to extract additional fragments of "Little Foot". After finding two large fragments of the lower leg, Clarke became convinced
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In the late 1970s, Ronald J. Clarke made discoveries of early
Hominins in the Swartkrans cave in South Africa. He discovered the partial cranium of specimen SK46 and SK 879. Clarke used the temporal bones of these specimens to compare them to similar bones in chimpanzees and other apes. Clarke had
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species. Clarke believed that the structure of the skeleton of "Little Foot" suggested that they had apelike functions. The foot that Clarke examined at the
Sterkfontein Cave had many characteristics that resembled those of an ape's foot, with only a slight resemblance to the modern human foot.
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Blumenschine, R. J.; Peters, C. R.; Masao, F. T.; Clarke, R. J.; Deino, A. L.; Hay, R. L.; Swisher, C. C.; Stanistreet, I. G.; Ashley, G. M.; McHenry, L. J.; Sikes, N. E.; Van Der Merwe, N. J.; Tactikos, J. C.; Cushing, A. E.; Deocampo, D. M.; Njau, J. K.; Ebert, J. I. (2003). "Late
Pliocene
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where he continued his work excavating "Little Foot". He later rejoined the
University of the Witwatersrand's Institute for Human Evolution, where he remains as of present.
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Partridge, Timothy C.; Shaw, John; Heslop, David; Clarke, Ronald J. (1999). "The new hominid skeleton from
Sterkfontein, South Africa: age and preliminary assessment".
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that the rest of the fragments were located within the
Silberberg Grotto of the Sterkfontein Cave. He chiseled away at the
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Clarke assigned the "Little Foot" bones to the specimen Stw 573 and categorized this
Australopithecus as belonging to the
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553:"Brief Communication: Shape analysis of the MT 1 proximal articular surface in fossil hominins and shod and unshod Homo"
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The Latest on “Little Foot’s” Bid for Status as Humanity’s Most Ancient Ancestor (April 16, 2015)
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Caves. A more technical description of various aspects of his description of the
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also discovered the SK 848 specimen, which had an ear that was far distinct from
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10.1002/(SICI)1099-1417(199907)14:4<293::AID-JQS471>3.0.CO;2-X
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Bower, Bruce (1998). "Ancient ancestor reveals skeletal stamina".
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156:. He also played a role in the discovery of a new skeleton of
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and Hominid Land Use from Western Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania".
500:"The Sterkfontein Caves and Little Foot – IFAS-Research"
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Ronald J. Clarke and his expedition team explored the
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Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main
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Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main
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Academic staff of the University of the Witwatersrand
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611:Full Australopithecus Fossil Found in South Africa
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557:American Journal of Physical Anthropology
458:American Journal of Physical Anthropology
366:, New York:Simon & Schuster. p. 184.
19:For other people with the same name, see
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442:. geotoursafrica.com. 14 December 1998
452:Rak, Yoel; Clarke, Ronald J. (1979).
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121:most notable for the discovery of "
268:List of hominina (hominid) fossils
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440:"World-renowned Scientist sacked"
16:South African paleoanthropologist
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526:South African Journal of Science
520:Clarke, R. J. (1 October 1998).
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139:skeleton was published in the
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21:Ronald Clarke (disambiguation)
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954:South African anthropologists
327:Journal of Quaternary Science
141:Journal of Quaternary Science
551:Proctor, Daniel J. (2010).
171:He was associated with the
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246:Australopithecus africanus
239:Genus name and designation
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362:and Edgar, Blake (1996)
801:Australopithecus sediba
470:10.1002/ajpa.1330510320
411:10.1126/science.1075374
205:Discovering Little Foot
146:He also discovered the
907:Underground Astronauts
902:Rising Star Expedition
808:Paranthropus robustus
364:From Lucy to Language
263:(with link directory)
104:/ronaldclarkewitsacza
100:/academic-a-z-listing
44:Ronald Clarke in 2015
949:Paleoanthropologists
260:List of fossil sites
662:Cradle of Humankind
606:TalkOrigins Archive
403:2003Sci...299.1217B
339:1999JQS....14..293P
119:paleoanthropologist
625:Answers in Genesis
569:10.1002/ajpa.21404
181:Frankfurt, Germany
115:Ronald John Clarke
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822:Homo gautengensis
397:(5610): 1217–21.
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192:Early discoveries
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832:Anthropology
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731:Plovers Lake
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133:Sterkfontein
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67:Institutions
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895:Expeditions
851:C. K. Brain
815:Homo naledi
793:Little Foot
783:Taung Child
751:Wonder Cave
676:Bolt's Farm
187:Discoveries
162:related to
123:Little Foot
928:Categories
846:Lee Berger
839:Scientists
746:Swartkrans
691:Gladysvale
372:0684810239
333:(4): 293.
277:References
788:Mrs. Ples
706:Kromdraai
577:1096-8644
538:0038-2353
478:1096-8644
201:.
131:, in the
726:Motsetsi
696:Gondolin
686:Drimolen
585:20925078
427:11390885
419:12595689
254:See also
769:Fossils
701:Haasgat
399:Bibcode
391:Science
335:Bibcode
312:4010879
232:breccia
85:Website
716:Malapa
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98:/staff
57:Fields
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308:JSTOR
117:is a
92:.wits
581:PMID
573:ISSN
534:ISSN
507:2020
482:PMID
474:ISSN
415:PMID
387:Homo
368:ISBN
565:doi
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94:.ac
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