Scientists have revealed the results of 15 years of painstaking analysis of Ardipithecus ramidus, a fossil hominid found in Ethiopia’s Afar Rift. The four foot tall pre-human female is thought to have weighed 120 pounds, but may have crash-dieted before summer vacation. Male scientists, who have nicknamed her “Ardi,” seem fascinated by her pelvis and gluteal muscles. Ardi’s robust thumb musculature and flexible midcarpal (wrist) joint are perfect for text-messaging.
Ardi lived 4.4 million years ago, and bears many human-like traits, explained investigators in a Washington, DC press conference today:
“What we found in Ethiopia at 4.4 million years ago is the closest we’ve ever come to that ancestor along our own line.”
“Ardipithecus is so rife with anatomical surprises that no one could have imagined it without direct fossil evidence.”
“It’s not a chimp. It’s not a human. It shows us what we used to be.”
— Tim White, University of California at Berkeley.
“This may be the most important specimen in the history of evolutionary biology.”
“The road to becoming human began with setting the social conditions that would allow for the expansion of the big brain.”
— C. Owen Lovejoy, Kent State University
More here.
Image by Mike Licht (with apologies to J.H. Matternes ). Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Tags: Ardi, Ardipithecus ramidus, evolution, Paleontology, science
NotionsCapital 
October 2, 2009 at 8:18 am
Hah! Good thing the BlackBerry wasn’t invented then, or we’d all be extinct.
October 2, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Awesome – Funny they didn’t report on the remote.
[That’s actually a cell phone — remember, Ardi is only 4 feet tall. Cell phones were bigger in those days, too. And there were no remotes back then, just round dials (including “vertical hold”, “horiz,” “contrast,” and “brightness”). Life was short and brutish. – ml]
October 4, 2009 at 11:59 pm
love it!…. nice way to make an educational point
http://www.blatantnews.com/news/african_fossil_may_force_us_to_rethink_human_evolution.html
March 6, 2010 at 4:05 pm
[…] human-like traits By Brian Hayes Ardipithecus is so rife with anatomical surprises…the more we dig the more we […]