Long-Awaited Research on a 4.4-Million-Year-Old Hominid Sheds New Light on Last Common Ancestor
Thursday, October 1, 2009 - 14:42
in Paleontology & Archaeology
The first full analysis of a 4.4-million-year-old early human paints a clearer picture of what the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees may have looked like, which is not, after all, that much like a chimp at all. The ancient Ardipithecus ramidus ("Ardi", as the most complete female specimen is known) is described in 11 research papers published online today in Science . The prodigious research effort combines Ardi's fossils with those from many other Ar. ramidus individuals--both male and female--found near the Awash River in the Afar Rift region of Ethiopia. [More]