The first digital reconstruction of the face of « Little Foot »

Identified as the most complete Australopithecus fossil discovered to date1 , “Little Foot” was buried in sediments whose movement and weight caused fractures and deformations, making analysis of its skull—and more particularly its face—difficult. This anatomical region, which is essential for understanding the adaptations of our ancestors and relatives to their environment, has now been virtually reconstructed for the first time by a CNRS researcher2  and her British and South African colleagues. These results will be published in the open-access journal Comptes Rendus Palevol on March 2.

A comparative analysis of this reconstruction with several extant great apes and three other Australopithecus specimens reveals that the face of “Little Foot” is closer in terms of size and morphology to Australopithecus specimens from eastern Africa than to those from southern Africa. This finding raises questions about the relationships between these different populations and about the chronology of the evolutionary processes that reshaped the faces of these hominins3 , particularly the orbital region, which appears to have been subject to strong selective pressures.

The skull was first transported to the Diamond Light Source synchrotron (United Kingdom), where it was carefully digitised. The research team then virtually isolated the bone fragments using semi-automated methods and supercomputers. Their realignment resulted in a 3D reconstruction with a resolution of 21 microns. More than five years were required to complete this reconstruction.

Publicly available in open access as of March 2, it will allow the international scientific community to consolidate the established model and to study other areas of the “Little Foot” skull in greater detail, particularly the braincase. 

• 1Discovered in1994 at Sterkfontein in South Africa, the skeleton of « Little foot » is 3,67 million years old. It represents the oldest hominin found in southern Africa to date and the most complete Australopithecus skeleton (more than 90% complete).
• 2From the laboratoire Paléontologie, Evolution, paléoécosystèmes, paléoprimatologie (CNRS/Université de Poitiers).
• 3Within the human lineage, the face became less projected and more gracile over time.