Ardipithecus Ramidus Essay

Humans evolve from apelike ancestors approximately five million years ago. Most closely related to us are our non-human primates such as African great apes, chimpanzees and gorillas. Scientific studies reveal that more similar traits are being share by human and our non-human primates compared to other animals. As human evolve from our apelike ancestors, changes in our DNA differentiate ourselves from our non-human primate. Even though we evolve from our non-human ancestors and share similar anatomical structures and characteristics, we are unique in our own ways. We possess specific qualities and abilities that differ from other species. There is a substantial gap between non-human primate and fully developed human. Here we will discuss

Australopithecus Boisei: Similar to the A. Aethiopicus in terms of the upper shape with the vertical line of bone

Ardipithecus has been discovered, an Ancestor that dates back prior to the remains of Lucy. In the article written by Ann Gibbons and others, it dives into the discovery of our most ancient ancestor and the clues given to us from all 110 remains that have been found of A. ramidus. First let me begin with Lucy whose remains were found in 1974 and that dated back to 3.2 million years ago. These skeletal remains gave us the evidence needed to prove that our ancient ancestors were bipedal before evolving their big brains. After Lucy was discovered the scientist found themselves with even more questions, such as, were any previous ancestors before Lucy bipedal or did

In the Article “Redrawing Humanity’s Family Tree” by John Noble Wilford, describes how two different skulls challenge the theories of human origins and migrations. The Central African skull, that dates back to nearly 7 million years ago, was assigned to a whole new genus and species because of its apelike and evolved hominid species. The 1.75-million-year-old Georgian skull shows evidence that the first hominids may have been intercontinental travelers who set motion the migrations that occupied the whole planet. Finally a third skull was found that is the same age and shares a resemblance but, the size of the skull suggests that the brain was smaller than expected for H. erectus.

Discoveries relating to the human lineage are extremely exciting and often baffling. This is the case with the recent discovery of what seems to be the oldest member of the human family. A skull found in northern Chad in 2001, has been deemed the earliest relative to the human ever found. Nicknamed Toumai, and discovered by Michel Brunet and his paleontology team, this new category of human has been given the scientific name, Sahelanthropus tchaensis. What makes this skull so definitive is the fact that it dates back approximately 6-7 million years in the earth’s history (Whitfield 2002). Since the discovery there have been anthropologists and paleontologists that have

Afropithecus is a fairly large extinct ape- 50kg, characterized by a lack of a prehensile tail, long snout with procumbent incisors, generalized limb proportions and thick molar enamel. The braincase of Afropithecus is fairly small in size compared to other Miocene apes and Old World Monkeys from the same area. The primitive characteristics of Afropithecus suggest a relation to early catarrhines- such as Aegyptopithecus. And the post-cranial fossil record suggest that it was both arboreal and quadrupedal, similar to the proconsul that Afropithecus is categorized

A recent discovery of four fossil primate teeth from the species Afrasia djijidae of the late middle Eocene Pondaung Formation of Myanmar has stirred up the debate of our primate origins. This new finding suggests that members of this clade originated in Asia then dispersed to Africa sometime during the middle Eocene, shortly before their first appearance in the African fossil record. Afrasia Djijdae is morphologically similar to Afrotarsius (North African Anthropoid). Afroasia’s dentition is very similar yet more primitive to Afrotarsius. After these phylogenetic analysis the two anthropoids have been deemed

NOVA scienceNOW : 41 - First Primates is a video that mainly talks about Primates who are ancient ancestors of human beings. Primates came out on the Earth 55million years ago when dinosaurs extinct due to collision between an immense comet and the Earth. Plesiadapiform, which is a possibly the first ancestor of primates and human beings, firstly evolved with a mouse-size organism during 10 million years. It existed during the 10 million year with diverse evidences that can show its validity of first ancester of primates. Nails of plesiadapiforms is a critical evidence that they are early ancestors of primates. Secondary proof is a tube-like structure which is found in the middle ear. It happens to be a tube for a huge vessel that goes to the

Darwin once hypothesized that humans evolved from an ape like ancestor and that those ancestors most likely originated in Africa since the majority of the great apes lived there. Unfortunately, Darwin’s hypothesis was ignored for reasons such as people (e.g. Europeans) not liking of having African ancestors—not to mention the lack of evidence did not help in supporting such hypothesis. Thus, finding the missing link between apes and humans was of great important—it still is. Thankfully, through extensive research many scientists have been able to determine a clade called Hominin [7]. This clade contains humans as well as their most closely related relatives.

Ardipithecus and other early Australopithecines lived in a habitat much wetter than the environment of Aramis, Ethiopia today. The set for scene one could at times experience a “rain fall,” and should include a woodland habitat with patches of denser forest and an abundant amount of monkeys just as what would have been seen between five and three million years ago. In 1992, an expedition led by Tim White of the University of California, Berkeley discovered the fossil of Ardipithecus ramidus, dating back to 4.4 million years ago. The skeleton nicknamed “Ardi” ended up weighing around 112 pounds, stood almost four feet tall, (somewhat larger than a male chimpanzee but smaller than a female gorilla) and was most likely a female. Ardi’s ape sized brain has a cranial capacity of only 300 to 350 CC.

The significance of finding these traits primitive in nature compared to the apes is that it shows how these are specialisations for apes to better access their terrestrial and tree dwelling environments. It also indicates that hominids did not develop these traits and therefore developed a less specialised grasping hand (Lovejoy et al., 2009a). Further evidence to support the hypothesis that Ardipithecus ramidus were both bipedal for tree dwelling life and land living is in the wrist bones. The bones were less fixed with the joints providing mobility to the hand. The most significant feature is the midcarpal joint, which shows increased flexibility that would allow Ardipithecus ramidus the ability to bear its body weight solely on it’s hands whilst moving throughout trees (Lovejoy et al., 2009a). The length of the upper limbs overall would have been difficult to support vertical climbs and aid in reaching longer distances between trees commonly found in arboreal settings (Sarmiento et al., 2011)

Three recent fossil findings believed to be hominin ancestors have been selected for description and any controversy surrounding their discovery will be discussed. The three fossils are: Homo floresiensis, Homo rudolfensis and Kenyanthropus

“How old is the oldest human fossil?,” If you had said about 700,000 years, you would probably have been right until just recently that is, “The September 1998 issue of Discover magazine”, reports that Ernesto Abbate, a geology professor from Florence, Italy, has just discovered the fossilized skull and teeth of a humanlike creature who might have lived, as far back as, one million years ago. Calling this creature Buia Man after the city in northeastern Africa where the remains were found. Prof. Abbate thinks he has discovered the earliest fossil that displays physical features associated with Homo sapiens, the species to which modern humans belong. Moreover, Buia Man says, Prof. Abbate also shows physical

The Australopithecines were the first to walk upright, or became bipedal, although rather clumsily. Their walk was unsteady, judging by their bone structure (Figure 1.), and they most likely were quadrupedal the majority of the time. The Australopithecines had a brain about the size of an orange, high up cheekbones, and big molars. They were about three feet tall, and had small thumbs. Australopithecines, while definitely possessing some human characteristics, humans are still much closer to the chimps. Australopithecines were vegetarians; even if they knew that animals were edible, they still had no reliable means of killing animals for food. About 2 million years ago, highly evolved Australopithecines made the

Hominids with a brain absolutely and relatively larger than that of the australopithecines appeared about 2.3 million years ago. These hominids are classified in our own genus: Homo. The earliest species to appear was the Homo Habilis. It was the first of our ancestors to show a significant increase in brain size and also the first to be found associated with stone tools. These characteristics resulted in this species’ placement into the human genus, Homo.