Explore the evolution of humanity

The gradual process of human adaption over millions of years is referred to as evolution. The origins of mankind are said to be in South Africa, where the first evidence of hominids was discovered. Fossil data from East Africa has also shed information on our evolutionary past. South Africa is significant in the history of paleoanthropology. Anthropologists and other scientists throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries scoffed at the idea that Africa was the cradle of humanity—that is, until an old hominid was discovered in South Africa in 1924. Africa has now been the epicenter of human evolution fieldwork, with South Africa producing a number of notable hominid fossils and artifacts.

Deep beneath Gauteng's highveld (high plateau), 20th-century researchers discovered two distant relatives of all humankind: Mrs. Ples, a 2.1-million-year-old Australopithecus Africanus (a precursor to the genus Homo) skull, and Little Foot, a nearly complete three-million-year-old Australopithecus skeleton. Then, in 2015, a new species of human related, Homo naledi, was discovered, with no idea where it fits in the evolutionary tree. This notable archeology may be explored in the Cradle of Humankind, about an hour northwest of Pretoria. At the Maropeng visitor center, engaging, world-class displays give context, and you may journey beneath the soil to the excavation site at Sterkfontein Caves.