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Ardipithecus ramidus is a species of australopithecine from the Afar region of Early Pliocene Ethiopia 4.4 million years ago (mya). A. ramidus , unlike modern hominids , has adaptations for both walking on two legs ( bipedality ) and life in the trees ( arboreality ).
Ardipithecus is a genus of an extinct hominine that lived during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene epochs in the Afar Depression, Ethiopia.Originally described as one of the earliest ancestors of humans after they diverged from the chimpanzees, the relation of this genus to human ancestors and whether it is a hominin is now a matter of debate. [1]
Dated to live around 5.6 to 4.4 million years ago. Fossils show Ardipithecus to have canine teeth that were reduced, much like later hominids. The jaw of Ardipithecus was very much prognathic. [6] The teeth of Ardipithecus ramidus in particular showed that the species was probably an omnivore
Ardi's foot is a special area of interest when examining the evolution of bipedalism in early Hominids, and the bipedality of Ardipithecus ramidus, because all five toes do not line up. [17] The remains of the foot from Ardi and other Ardipithecus ramidus specimens that can be studied includes "a talus, medial and intermediate cuneiforms ...
Dated to 3.7 million years ago, they were the oldest known evidence of hominin bipedalism at that time. Subsequently, older Ardipithecus ramidus fossils were found with features that suggest bipedalism. With the footprints there were other discoveries excavated at Laetoli including Hominina and animal skeletal remains.
Some, including Paranthropus, Ardipithecus, and Australopithecus, are broadly thought to be ancestral and closely related to Homo; [26] others, especially earlier genera, including Sahelanthropus (and perhaps Orrorin), are supported by one community of scientists but doubted by another. [27] [28]
In 1993, 4.4 million year old fossil teeth were found in Aramis, Ethiopia, by a group led by Tim D. White attributed to a new species, Australopithecus ramidus, later called Ardipithecus ramidus. The age was thus half a million years older than previously known A. afarensis and had a more monkey-like appearance. [24]
The chimpanzee–human divergence likely took place during around 10 to 7 million years ago. [1] The list of fossils begins with Graecopithecus, dated some 7.2 million years ago, which may or may not still be ancestral to both the human and the chimpanzee lineage.