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Ronald J. Clarke is an honorary professor in Palaeoanthropology in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. He earned his PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1977, with his doctoral research focusing on the hominin cranium SK 847 from Swartkrans. Clarke began his career working with Louis Leakey in Nairobi in the 1960s before joining Wits, where he has maintained a long association with the Sterkfontein and Swartkrans sites in the Cradle of Humankind.
Clarke’s research specializations center on early hominin fossils, stratigraphy, and stone tools from South African cave sites. He discovered the partial cranium SK 847 and identified key foot bones in 1994 that led to the excavation of the near-complete Australopithecus skeleton known as Little Foot (Stw 573) from the Silberberg Grotto at Sterkfontein, with preparation completed in 2017. He has also contributed to identifying a second species of Australopithecus at the site and to renewed excavations at Swartkrans. Clarke served as senior researcher at Sterkfontein from 1984 to 1986 and as deputy director of the Palaeo-Anthropology Research Unit from 1991 until his retirement, after which he continued as honorary professor. His work has advanced understanding of early human evolution through detailed fossil analysis and training of technical staff in fossil preparation and casting.
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Wits University's pioneering 3D reconstruction of the 3.67-million-year-old Little Foot fossil face shows striking similarities to Ethiopian Australopithecus, reshaping views on human origins.
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