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4.4 Million Year Old Skeleton Found
Anthropologists have discovered a hominid skeleton named "Ardi" that is one million years older than Lucy. This hominid lived 4.4 million years ago in what is present-day Ethiopia. Anthropologists believe that the skeleton belonged to a 110-pound, 4-foot female that is the earliest skeleton of a human ancestor to be found.
Rather than the previous belief that humans evolved from a chimp like creature, the new skeleton proves that chimps and humans shared a long-ago ancestor but they evolved and changed separately over time. Although scientists haven’t been able to find this common ancestor, but this is the closest link they have.
Scientists believe that apes and humans shared an ancestor between 6 and 7 million years ago. After analyzing Ardi scientists can see that many traits do not appear in modern-day African apes. As a result, this has led them to the conclusion that apes have evolved extensively since humans and apes shared an ancestor.
This discovery is important to the study of human evolution. This skeleton is fairly complete. It has a head, hands, and feet along with some parts of the spine. The skeleton currently consists of 125 pieces. The skeleton found in Ethiopia’s Afar Rift, which is where fossils of many ancient plants and animals have been found including 29 species of birds and 20 species of mammals.
Even though scientists still have thousands of questions, Ardi is starting to fill in some of the gaps. They have even gained an understanding of how evolution has changed these creatures over time. It will be interesting to see what other fossils and skeletons they find that can further the advance of science.
