Ardi

I’m studying Anthropology, and when I have to choose speciality in the future, I’m thinking of choosing physical anthropology. I love to think in how our daily activities remains registered physically in our body, and how can we know about our forbears just looking their bones and whatever is preserved through the time in their old bodies. That’s why I looked about anthropology in http://www.guardian.co.uk/ and I found an interesting article about a specimen founded recently in Ethiopia, which is older even than the older founded before (Lucy). It’s named Ardi, and It’s dated in 4.4 million years old, so it belongs to a new specie called Ardipithecus ramidus, and it’s earlier than any other specie catalogued as “human”. The bones belong to a female one, who walked on two legs but was adept at climbing trees and moving through the forest. Her height it’s calculated at 1,2m approximately, and she may weight 50 k. Her teeth aren’t adapted to eat meat, so the scientists guest she ate fruits and leaves, maybe little mammals.

The importance of this discover is to show how right was Darwin about our descent of the monkeys, and it help us too to build our evolutionary history. But, there is one big question which scientist still asking: what would start the process of evolution off?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/oct/01/fossil-ardi-human-race