First, the discovery (archive No.
STW 573) was not assigned to any particular species in the genus Australopithecus.
In the first description in July 1995 it was said, "The bones are probably an early member of Australopithecus africanus or another early species of hominids".
After 1998, when a part of the skull had been discovered and uncovered, Clarke pointed out now that the fossils were probably associated with the genus Australopithecus, but whose 'unusual features' do not match any Australopithecus species previously described.

Clarke now suggests that Little Foot does not belong to the species Australopithecus afarensis or Australopithecus africanus, but to a unique Australopithecus species previously found at Makapansgat and Sterkfontein Member Four, Australopithecus prometheus.

Following the discovery of the approximately two million year old Australopithecus sediba, which had been discovered just 15 km away from Sterkfontein in the Malapa northern cave in the year 2008, the assumption was made that an ancestor of Australopithecus could be sediba.
As with any new discovery, there is always an argument between the lumpers and splitters.
First, the discovery (archive No. STW 573) was not assigned to any particular species in the genus Australopithecus. In the first description in July 1995 it was said, "The bones are probably an early member of Australopithecus africanus or another early species of hominids". After 1998, when a part of the skull had been discovered and uncovered, Clarke pointed out now that the fossils were probably associated with the genus Australopithecus, but whose 'unusual features' do not match any Australopithecus species previously described.
Clarke now suggests that Little Foot does not belong to the species Australopithecus afarensis or Australopithecus africanus, but to a unique Australopithecus species previously found at Makapansgat and Sterkfontein Member Four, Australopithecus prometheus.
Following the discovery of the approximately two million year old Australopithecus sediba, which had been discovered just 15 km away from Sterkfontein in the Malapa northern cave in the year 2008, the assumption was made that an ancestor of Australopithecus could be sediba. As with any new discovery, there is always an argument between the lumpers and splitters.
Little Foot