JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA—BBC News reports that the fragile Australopithecus skeleton known as “Little Foot” has been unveiled in South Africa after 20 years of excavation, cleaning, analysis, and reconstruction. “We used very small tools, like needles, to excavate it,” said team leader Ron Clarke of the University of the Witwatersrand. “That’s why it took so long. It was like excavating a fluffy pastry out of concrete.” Little Foot, named for the initial discovery of her four tiny foot bones, is thought to have been a young girl who fell down a shaft in South Africa’s Sterkfontein Caves some 3.67 million years ago. She had shorter arms than an ape and small hands, though she probably slept in trees. For more, go to “Cosmic Rays and Australopithecines.”
