Ardipithecus ramidus
A mandible and partial postcranial skeleton of a single individual was found in 1994. Analysis and publication on this find has yet to be made. Once completed, this should provide significant insight into the positional repertoire of Ardipithecus ramidus, dispelling all doubt as to whether or not this truly was a bipedal hominid.
CLASSIFICATION
This early fossil hominid was initially
placed within the Australopithecus genus, with a new specific epithet - ramidus
(from the Afar word "ramid", meaning "root") [White, et al, 1994]. Tim White and
associates have subsequently reassigned the hominid to a new genus, noting the
apparently extreme dissimilarities between ramidus and all other known
Australopithecines. They proposed Ardipithecus (from "ardi", which means "ground"
or "floor" in the Afar language) to be the genus [White, et al, 1995].
GEOLOGICAL SETTING
The initial and most extensive publication [White, et al, 1994] concerning Ardipithecus. ramidus specified that 17 hominid fossils had been located by the end of 1993. These specimens were retrieved from a cluster of localities West of the Awash River, within the Afar Depression, Aramis, Ethiopia.
Hominid and associated fossil faunas, including wood, seed and vertebrate
specimens, were found entirely within a single interval overlying the basal
Gaala Tuff complex, and beneath the Daam Aatu Basaltic Tuff (these volcanic
strata have produced dates of 4.389 and 4.388 million years, respectively) [Renne,
et al, 1999]. This definitively places all Ardipithecine specimens just shy of
4.4 million years ago.
Additionally, the associated strata were most likely produced within the context of a heavily forested, flood plain environment. Evidence for this conclusion was derived from representative non-human fossil remains, particularly from those species whose present-day analogues are environment-specific.
