Ardipithecus Ramidus

Following publication in October, 2009 of multiple papers on the discovery and study of a 4.4 million-year-old female partial skeleton nicknamed Ardi in the journal Science, Discovery Channel presented a world premiere special, Discovering Ardi that documented the sustained, intensive investigation leading up to this landmark publication of the Ardipithecus Ramidus fossils.The scientific investigation began in the Ethiopian desert 17 years ago, and now opens a new chapter on human evolution...Read Full Story

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 by...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 GlobeArdi wasn't human ancestor, says teamTG DailyA 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 challengedSan Francisco ChronicleArdi: The Human Ancestor Who Wasn't?TIMEScientists Challenge 'Breakthrough' on Fossil SkeletonNew York TimesThe Associated...Read Full Story

Scientists just released information today about Ardipithecus Ramidus, nicknamed "Ardi," the species that is believed to be the oldest human ancestor. News of the fossil finding and species was released around the world by the team of scientists who found about 30 remains in what is now Ethiopia. The Ardi fossils are believed to be about 4.4 million years old. C. Owen Lovejoy, one of the anthropologists who discovered the remains, told ABCNews : "This may be the most important specimen in...Read Full Story

"The fossil evidence Darwin could only have dreamed of..."In my previous post, I covered a few points about the documentary titled “Discovering Ardi” that aired on the Discovery Channel this past Sunday evening, October 11, 2009. In that post I gave a brief summary of the research that has taken place over the roughly 15 years since its discovery. The documentary was two hours in length and probably could have covered all of the information in about one hour. That aside, the first half of the...Read Full Story

Neanderthals may be lampooned as slack-jawed low-brows who could just about wield a heavy club on a good day, but in one important respect they outperformed us: in the number of sex partners. So says an unusual study which suggests finger length can indicate promiscuity among hominins, as the ancient family of humans is known. Researchers led by Emma Nelson of Liverpool University, northwestern England, looked at fossilised fingers from four hominin species. Digitally rendered hand of...Read Full Story

. This is exciting stuff… The big news in the journal Science tomorrow is the discovery of the oldest human skeleton — a small-brained, 110-pound female of the species Ardipithecus ramidus, nicknamed “Ardi.” She lived in what is now Ethiopia 4.4 million years ago, which makes her over a million years older than the famous “Lucy” fossil, found in the same region thirty-five years ago. One of the key defining traits paleoanthropologists look for in determining whether species fall into the...Read Full Story