The History of Our Tribe Hominini Textbook Part III Pliocene Epoch Chapter 14 Australopithecus prometheus or africanus

14 . prometheus or prometheus or Little Foot ( southern ape I Prometheus I Africa ) Figure and metatarsal of Little Foot . Little Foot 01 by Tobias is licensed under . SITES and possibly , South Africa 99 PEOPLE Ronald Clarke INTRODUCTION The controversial material that has come to be known as Little Foot is an almost complete skeleton from the site of ( see Au . for more information on ) The story is remarkable in that the skeletal components were discovered at two different times . The earlier material was catalogued and stored as cercopithecoid ( Old World monkey ) remains . Fifteen years later , the rest of the skeleton was found at the same location at ( Grotto ) and matched to the previous material . The only other case that I know of where something like that happened was at the , England , site where three skull bones from a Homo individual were found in three different years . PHYLOGENY Ronald Clarke believes that there were two species of at . He has assigned the species name prometheus to the Little Foot material , as well as two individuals that others assign to Au . one from and the other from . While the phylogeny is unknown , Little Foot precedes and may be the ancestor of Au . DISCOVERY AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE The cercopithecoid material was discovered by Ronald Clarke in a storeroom at the University of the . Once he realized that the bones were and had thus been , he sent his two assistants , Stephen and , out to the original site to see if they could find more and they did ! The species geographic range is presently limited to the area of South Africa ( Duke 1998 ) PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS Little Foot is characterized as a climbing biped , as it had both arboreal and bipedal characteristics . Arboreal characteristics consisted of shoulder joints arms that were , however , shorter than those of other southern and curved hand and foot bones . Surprisingly , the few foot bones that were recovered are more complete than in any previous specimen ( see Figure ) The morphology is transitional in that they retained some morphology . The hallux displayed the same degree of divergence as other . The upper limb combined both and like characteristics . While the upper limb was shorter relative to , the hand bones remained curved . While the Little Foot specimen was tall , males and females are estimated to have been ' and ' tall and in weight , respectively . 100 The History of Our Tribe

ENVIRONMENT AND WAY OF LIFE The environment of is discussed in the section on Au . Review of Primitive Characteristics Climbing adaptations shoulder girdle . arms . Curved hand and foot bones . Review of Derived Characteristics Shorter arms relative to . 14 . prometheus or 101