A. africanus Cranium (Sts 5)

The female cranium Sts 5 from Sterkfontein in South Africa, found in 1936 by a vertebrate palaeontologist named Robert Broom.

This skull belonged to an adult female, and was better preserved than the Taung child.

This specimen has been variously named, including "Plesianthropus" for a while, from which has come the nickname "Mrs Ples" - pronounced "Please".

Nowadays most palaeoanthropologists assign it to Australopithecus africanus [Boyd & Silk 1997] , pp 362-365.

• List some of its more unusual features when compared with modern hominid skulls.

The cranium of a female australopithecine (Australopithecus africanus) found at Sterkfontein in South Africa.

Though the early hominid sites in South Africa have proved difficult to date, current estimates of the age of this specimen place it between 2.8 and 3 million years; see [Boyd & Silk 1997] , pp 362-365.