Remember Lucy? The oldest fossil revealing a human ancestor more than 4 million years ago? Well now she's the second oldest. Ardipithicus ramidus, otherwise known as Ardi, has now taken that spot, dating back from 5 to 6 million years ago. From Miss Ramidus, chimps and apes were on one path of evolution while Humans were on another. Ardi was found in Ethiopia, in an desert region called Aramis, which is full of hominid fossils. The team that found Ardi spent nearly twenty years collecting information about Ardi, including bones and pollen. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113387960
Excavators and archaeologists previously found some teeth and bones of Ardi some years ago but now they have more than 100 bones, a partial skeleton of a female, a.k.a. Ardi and other remains that were new to everyone. Such as the skull, which had been destroyed to pieces. They were able to reconstruct it however, after many years of hard work and patience. Concluding from Ardi's anatomy, it looks like she was able to walk on two legs, even though she probably spent most of the times in forests, living in a moist wooden environment. Ardi is evidence that hits the stereotypical idea that Humans evolved from chimpanzees. It's mostly likely that our most common ancestor had some chimp qualities yet some monkey ones as well. Ardi isn't totally different from sister Lucy though, having similar teeth structure.
This is so important, because it is another piece in a grand puzzle of where we originated. With the find of Ardi, we're one step closer to finding out where we began and the pieces along the way. With continued evidence in the future, we'll be able to track our far ancient past.
However, with any big discovery, comes skepticism. But that's the price you pay for finding your oldest ancestor.
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