April 20, 2021 A long-awaited, high-tech analysis of the upper body of famed fossil Little Foot opens a window to a pivotal period when human ancestors diverged from apes, new USC research shows. The Little Foot skeleton was discovered in the 1990s in a cave in South Africa and is the most intact ancient skeleton of any human ancestor. (Photo/Paul John Myburgh, Courtesy of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) Little Foot’s shoulder assembly proved key to interpreting an early branch of the human evolutionary tree. Scientists at the Keck School of Medicine of USC focused on its so-called pectoral girdle, which includes collarbones, shoulder blades and joints.