Ardipithecus

Ardipithecus
	Ardipithecus ramidus
Temporal occurrence
	Upper Miocene to Lower Pliocene
	5.7 to 4.4 million years
Locations
	Ethiopia;
Systematics
	Old World Monkey (Catarrhini)
	Human (Hominoidea)
	Apes (Hominidae)
	Homininae
	Hominini
	Ardipithecus
Scientific name
	Ardipithecus
	White , Suwa & Asfaw , 1995
species
	Ardipithecus ramidus (type species); Ardipithecus kadabba;

Ardipithecus is an extinct genus of primates from the family of great apes , the front around 6 to 4 million years ago in Ethiopia occurred. The genus is one of the oldest known species in the line of development of the hominini . The type species Ardipithecus ramidus possibly belongs to the direct ancestors of the genera Australopithecus and Homo or is at least very close to them.

Naming

Ardipithecus is an artificial word . The name of the genus is partly derived from the Afar language (from "ardi" = soil), partly from Greek (from "πίθηκος", pronounced "píthēkos" = monkey in ancient Greek). The species name of the type species, Ardipithecus ramidus , is also borrowed from the Afar language ( ramid , "root"). Ardipithecus ramidus therefore means “ground monkey at the root of man”.

Initial description

Ten associated teeth from an upper jaw and a lower jaw were named as the holotype of the genus and at the same time the type species Ardipithecus ramidus in the first description in September 1994 (archive number ARA-VP-6/1). Numerous other teeth and some other skeletal fragments from 17 individuals from Aramis have been identified as paratypes .

In 1994, in the first description, these fossils were not yet assigned to a new genus, but as Australopithecus ramidus as an additional species of the genus Australopithecus . As early as 1995, however, the same research group placed the species next to the genus Australopithecus by means of a short corrigendum under the new genus name Ardipithecus .

More finds

In October 2009, a comprehensive analysis of the almost completely preserved fossil " Ardi " and several dozen other finds of Ardipithecus ramidus was published in Science .

The second described species of the genus, Ardipithecus kadabba , was first named by its discoverer in 2001 as a subspecies of Ardipithecus ramidus (as Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba ), but in 2004 it was placed as a separate species next to Ardipithecus ramidus . At the same time, however, it was noted that the genera Ardipithecus , Sahelanthropus and Orrorin belong to the same group of forms and - after finding other finds - could possibly be assigned to a single genus.

An anatomical proximity to Ardipithecus ramidus is also shown by the much younger Burtele foot , which was recovered in the Ethiopian excavation area Woranso-Mille and which has not yet been assigned to a specific species.

It is unclear what family relationships exist with older and younger species.

Web links

Commons : Ardipithecus - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Ann Gibbons: A New Kind of Ancestor: Ardipithecus Unveiled. In: Science . Volume 326, 2009, p. 36, doi: 10.1126 / science.326.5949.36
↑ Tim White , Gen Suwa, Berhane Asfaw : Australopithecus ramidus, a new species of hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia. In: Nature . Volume 371, 1994, pp. 306-312, doi: 10.1038 / 371306a0 , full text (PDF)
↑ Tim White, Gen Suwa, Berhane Asfaw: Corrigendum. Tim White, Gen Suwa, Berhane Asfaw: Australopithecus ramidus, a new species of early hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia. In: Nature. Volume 375, No. 6526, 1995, p. 88, doi: 10.1038 / 375088a0 ; ( Full text (PDF; 63 kB) )
↑ The eleven studies appeared in Science , Volume 326, No. 5949, October 2, 2009, pp. 60-106; an introduction can be found in the same booklet on pages 36–43
^ Yohannes Haile-Selassie : Late Miocene hominids from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. In: Nature. Volume 412, 2001, pp. 178-181, doi: 10.1038 / 35084063
↑ Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Gen Suwa, Tim White: Late Miocene Teeth from Middle Awash, Ethopia, and early hominid dental evolution. In: Science. Volume 303, No. 5663, 2004, pp. 1503-1505, doi: 10.1126 / science.1092978

[1] Ann Gibbons: A New Kind of Ancestor: Ardipithecus Unveiled. In: Science . Volume 326, 2009, p. 36, doi: 10.1126 / science.326.5949.36

[2] Tim White , Gen Suwa, Berhane Asfaw : Australopithecus ramidus, a new species of hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia. In: Nature . Volume 371, 1994, pp. 306-312, doi: 10.1038 / 371306a0 , full text (PDF)

[3] Tim White, Gen Suwa, Berhane Asfaw: Corrigendum. Tim White, Gen Suwa, Berhane Asfaw: Australopithecus ramidus, a new species of early hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia. In: Nature. Volume 375, No. 6526, 1995, p. 88, doi: 10.1038 / 375088a0 ; ( Full text (PDF; 63 kB) )

[4] The eleven studies appeared in Science , Volume 326, No. 5949, October 2, 2009, pp. 60-106; an introduction can be found in the same booklet on pages 36–43

[5] Yohannes Haile-Selassie : Late Miocene hominids from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. In: Nature. Volume 412, 2001, pp. 178-181, doi: 10.1038 / 35084063

[6] Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Gen Suwa, Tim White: Late Miocene Teeth from Middle Awash, Ethopia, and early hominid dental evolution. In: Science. Volume 303, No. 5663, 2004, pp. 1503-1505, doi: 10.1126 / science.1092978