Ardipithecus Ramidus

Ardipithecus ramidus was named in September 1994. The first fossil find was dated to 4.4 million years ago based on its interval between two volcanic strata: the basal Gaala Tuff Complex (GATC) and the Daam Aatu Basaltic Tuff (DABT). The name Ardipithecus ramidus stems mostly from the Afar language, in which Ardi means "ground/floor" and ramid means "root". The pithecus portion of the name is from the Greek word for "ape". Its distinguishing characteristics are bipedalism incorporating an...Read Full Story

Pre-humans living in East Africa 4.4 million years ago inhabited savannas — grassy plains dotted with trees and shrubs — according to a team of researchers that includes earth scientist  Naomi Levin of  The Johns Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. This conclusion is at odds with a theory – which holds that these early beings lived in a mostly forested environment – put forth by prominent University of California at Berkeley researcher Tim D. White and his team in a 2009...Read Full Story

Last fall, a fossil skeleton named "Ardi" shook up the field of human evolution. Now, some scientists are raising doubts about what exactly the creature from Ethiopia was and what kind of landscape it inhabited. New critiques question whether Ardi really belongs on the human branch of the evolutionary tree, and whether it really lived in woodlands. That second question has implications for theories about what kind of environment spurred early human evolution. The new work is being published...Read Full Story

A group of US scientists have disputed claims that "Ardi," man's oldest known ancestor, lived in forested areas -- an assertion key to understanding of how and why humans evolved. Science magazine dubbed 'Ardipithecus ramidus' its "Breakthrough of the Year" in 2009, and the hypothesis that the human forebear lived in dense woodlands was used to argue against the so-called "savanna hypothesis" of human evolution. But in a critique published Thursday, a team of eight geologists and...Read Full Story

Boston Globe Ardi wasn't human ancestor, says team TG Daily A team of scientists says that habitat evidence shows that Ardipithecus ramidus - claimed last year as the earliest human ancestor - was nothing of the sort. According to University of Utah geochemist Thure Cerling, there is scant evidence for claims ... Ardi's place in human ancestry challenged San Francisco Chronicle Ardi: The Human Ancestor Who Wasn't? TIME Scientists Challenge 'Breakthrough' on Fossil Skeleton New York Times The...Read Full Story