It started out much like other safaris. We piled into an open 4X4 safari vehicle with four rows of tiered seats and headed out into the bush. A few moments into the drive we encountered a wildebeest. We stopped and looked, as it looked back at us. Then we moved on.

Our guide, who was driving, told us, “It’s hard to compete with the Big Five.” There are no lions on the 47,000-hectare reserve known as the Cradle of Humankind. Only a 45-minute drive from Johannesburg, it’s not surprising that some of the larger, more charismatic wildlife have moved farther into the wilderness. There are leopards and waterbucks, and many other kinds of fascinating animals and plants, but this is not about the Big Five. What it has is something no one else in the world has: the oldest hominid fossils so far discovered on Earth Read the rest of this entry »