The Oldest Complete Skeleton of an Australopithecus in Africa (StW 573)

Abstract

Although 78 years have elapsed since the discovery at Taung of the Australopithecus africanus, and despite intensive fieldwork in East Africa which resulted in 32 years of non-stop excavation at Sterkfontein, there has not been a discovery to date of a reasonably intact skull and associated skeleton of an ape-man. The following report is an account of an extraordinary series of events that led to the discovery of a complete skeleton on an Australopithecus, and a preliminary assessment of the significance of the fossil, which is still 5 years after its discovery largely embedded in the Member 2 breccia of the Sterkfontein Caves near Krugersdorp, South Africa.