Here fos­sils of some of the ear­li­est known life forms on Earth have been found. South Africa has yield­ed fos­sils of some of the ear­li­est known dinosaurs, dat­ing back at least 200-mil­lion years. Fos­sils of our dis­tant mam­­mal-like ances­tors, which lived more than 200-mil­lion years ago, have also been found in South Africa. Hominids – the ances­tors of mod­ern humans – first emerged about sev­en mil­lion years ago, in Africa. Many sig­nif­i­cant fos­sil finds have been made in the Cra­dle of Humankind World Her­itage Site, includ­ing the famous fos­sils “Mrs Ples” and “Lit­tle Foot”. The first stone tools were made and used in Africa, at least 2.6‑million years ago. Our ances­tors were able to use and con­trol fire at least one mil­lion years ago in the Cra­dle of Humankind. Homo sapi­ens, the species to which we all belong, evolved in Africa approx­i­mate­ly 200 000 years ago. Africa ignit­ed humankind’s imag­i­na­tion. Some of the old­est rock art in the world has been dis­cov­ered in South­ern Africa.