The skeleton of a prehistoric people lived in Africa 4.4 million years ago that humans did not evolve from creatures shaped like chimps . In addition, human history began more than a million years earlier .
The illustration of the appearance and gait , ” Ardi ” was erected based on fossil . The science studied fossils from 1994 to present . Photo : BBC.
fossil skeleton - named Ardipithecus ramidus but referred to as ” Ardi ” - was assembled from 125 pieces of bone . Scientists at the University of California (USA ) said , skeletons dating back 4.4 million years and it different from the shape of humans and modern primates .
The team stressed that ” Ardi ” may be creatures of the oldest hominid that scientists had discovered . According to their description , it is a skeleton of females of the species Ardipithecus ramidus. Living area of its territory Ethiopia today . ” Ardi ” about 1.2 meters high and weighs 50 kg .
Follow AP, the first bones of ” Ardi ” was found in 1994 in an area of the capital Addis Ababa Ethiopia . Since then archaeologists have now found a total of 125 bones . The research shows that this creature climbing a tree with all four genera and spent about half his life in the trees . ” Ardi “can step in and stretch the legs straight when moving on the ground . Its teeth are not as long and sharp teeth of modern chimpanzees . That means that they are more gentle , because that is a weapon of war in the chimpanzee . But its brain ( rather small ) are located in identical modern humans .
” This is not the usual fossils . It’s not the chimpanzee , nor the people . Tim White , head of research at the University of California , said .
Reuters said before find ” Ardi ” , scientists said that ” Lucy ” - the skeleton of a species named Australopithecus afarensis - new history of the oldest ever discovered . that fossil dating back 3.2 million years and was discovered in 1974 in a position to ” Ardi ” about 70 km . It had seen ” Lucy ” is ” ancestor of man ” and is intermediate stages in the process of human evolution from chimpanzees. Before ” Ardi ” was discovered ,
However , ” Ardi ” youth are higher than ” Lucy ” more than a million years . That means that the history of mankind had started much earlier .
” Many scientists believe that humans evolved from chimpanzees. Ardi But fossils show that humans and chimpanzees are both the same evolution from a common ancestor and the common ancestor that appeared earlier than we thought ” , White comment.
Follow BBCResults of genetic analysis , ” Ardi ” that humans and chimpanzees ( species most closely related to us ) began evolving in two different directions 6-7 million years ago . Some previous studies that human ancestors split from chimpanzees from 4 million years ago .
In the journal article Science (USA ) , the team said that ” Ardi ” is an ancestor of humans but not her descendants evolved into chimpanzees or any other primates . ” Ardi ” has the same primates and toes facing each other to be able to climb easily . But the hand, wrist and pelvis showed her walk like modern humans , not decrepit like chimpanzees or gorillas .
” This is one of the most important findings in research on human evolution . Parts of this skeleton , as the arms and legs , still intact , “said David Pilbeam , a specialist working at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnicity of Harvard University (USA ) , affirmed . Pilbeam not join the team at the University of California .
But anthropologist C. Owen Lovejoy of Kent University (USA ) said: ” This fossil upset our understanding of human history . ”
When asked whether ” Ardi ” there must be the direct ancestor of man or not , Tim White said he and colleagues need further research. But he said: “Maybe Ardi is not the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees , but the organism has a close relationship with our ancestors . “
