--- title: Human Ancestor ‘Little Foot’ Was Lucy’s Contemporary description: New research indicates that a mysterious skeleton dubbed Little Foot lived around the time of Lucy's species. canonical: https://time.com/3771452/human-ancestor-little-foot/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-04T15:28:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:16.992Z article:section: Science og:title: Human Ancestor ‘Little Foot’ Lived 3.7 Million Years Ago og:description: The findings shed light on the connections between early human ancestors og:url: https://time.com/3771452/human-ancestor-little-foot/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25012966bf90e01b/698786b45f570ffb45b1619a/little-foot.jpg?branch=production&width=1003&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1003 og:image:height: 564 og:image:alt: Undated handout photo shows the Little Foot skull og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Human Ancestor ‘Little Foot’ Lived 3.7 Million Years Ago twitter:description: The findings shed light on the connections between early human ancestors twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25012966bf90e01b/698786b45f570ffb45b1619a/little-foot.jpg?branch=production&width=1003&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Human Ancestor ‘Little Foot’ Lived 3.7 Million Years Ago > Sponsored content. 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The Little Foot skull is pictured in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters April 1, 2015.Reuters  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Apr 4, 2015 3:28 PM UTC New research indicates that a mysterious skeleton dubbed “Little Foot” [lived around the same time as human ancestor Lucy’s](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14268.html) species, suggesting a diverse landscape of pre-humans in Africa during the same period. Scientists initially believed that Little Foot was far older than Lucy’s species, but according to research published in the journal _Nature_ this week the skeleton is roughly 3.7 million years old. Lucy, who lived about 3.2 million years ago, was an _Australopithecus afarensis_, a species of early upright walkers in east Africa that lived between 2.9 and 4.1 million years ago and is believed to be a direct human ancestor, predating the Homo lineage by more than a million years. Scientists aren’t clear how to categorize Little Foot, who was found in a cave in South Africa in the 1990s. But the age of the skeleton helps shed light on the diversity of the _Australopithecus_ human ancestors. “The most important implication from dating Little Foot is that we now know that australopithecines were in South Africa early in their evolution,” lead author Darryl Granger, a geochronologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, [told Live Science](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/famed-human-ancestor-lucy-wasnt-alone-meet-little-foot/). “This implies an evolutionary connection between South Africa and East Africa prior to the age of Little Foot, and with enough time for the australopithecine species to diverge.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3771452/human-ancestor-little-foot/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3771452/human-ancestor-little-foot/"},"headline":"Human Ancestor ‘Little Foot’ Lived 3.7 Million Years Ago","datePublished":"2015-04-04T15:28:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:05:16.992Z","description":"The findings shed light on the connections between early human ancestors","url":"https://time.com/3771452/human-ancestor-little-foot/","keywords":["Archaeology","Africa"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25012966bf90e01b/698786b45f570ffb45b1619a/little-foot.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25012966bf90e01b/698786b45f570ffb45b1619a/little-foot.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Undated handout photo shows the Little Foot skull","caption":"Undated handout photo shows the Little Foot skull","creditText":"Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/archaeology/","name":"Archaeology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3771452/human-ancestor-little-foot/","name":"Human Ancestor ‘Little Foot’ Lived 3.7 Million Years Ago"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Explains: Could We Be Aliens?","description":"TIME explains the tantalizing evidence that suggests life on Earth may have been seeded from other planets","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/klUn8B3a/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2012-10-12T21:29:25.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/klUn8B3a.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3771452/human-ancestor-little-foot/","duration":"PT2M48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3771452/human-ancestor-little-foot/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```