Issued by: Government Communications (GCIS)
December 7, 1998
The Media, nationally and internationally, are invited to a MEDIA CONFERENCE to announce details of an extremely important fossil discovery. It will be held on Wednesday, December 9 at 10am at the Len Miller auditorium, 9th floor, Wits Medical School, 7 York Road, Parktown.
What is considered to be the most important South African anthropological discovery - certainly since the Taung skull in 1924 - has been made by Dr Ron Clarke of Wits University's Palaeo-Anthropology Research Group.
"We are talking here about world impact news - nothing like it of such a great age has ever been found in the world," says Phillip Tobias, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Anatomy, Wits Medical School. "This discovery is full of 'firsts', and of such importance that the mind boggles."
Dr Clarke, considered to be one of the most knowledgeable palaeontologists on human-like fossils of South Africa, was responsible in 1994 for the discovery of Little Foot, the nickname for a set of hominid footbones that lay for decades incorrectly labelled in a box as animals.
Dr Clarke, with his assistants Mr Stephen Motsumi and Mr Nkwane Molefe, will be present at the launch for Media questions when Dr Clarke will relate the sleuth-like route that his uncanny 'palaeontological nose' led him along to make this stunning discovery.
Please note: A full account of the extraordinary series of circumstances that led up to the discovery - and the preliminary assessment of the significance of the find - are described by Dr Clarke in the issue of the South African Journal of Science published on Wednesday. It will be available at the launch.
For further information contact Peggy Jennings 716 3525.
For confirming attendance please telephone Ms Heather White on 647 2516.