What does Ardipithecus mean?

Asked by: Heather Merrow

What does the word Ardipithecus mean?

Definition of Ardipithecus
: a genus of extinct early hominids known from skeletal remains from northeastern Ethiopia that includes two identified species (A. ramidus and A.

What do the terms Ardipithecus and ramidus mean?

ramidus . White and his colleagues gave their discovery the name Ardipithecus ramidus (‘ramid’ means ‘root’ in the Afar language of Ethiopia and refers to the closeness of this new species to the roots of humanity, while ‘Ardi’ means ‘ground’ or ‘floor’).

What does the word Australopithecus mean?

southern ape

Australopithecus, (Latin: “southern ape”) (genus Australopithecus), group of extinct primates closely related to, if not actually ancestors of, modern human beings and known from a series of fossils found at numerous sites in eastern, north-central, and southern Africa.

What is Ardipithecus ramidus known for?

ramidus represents the oldest species that possesses features unequivocally linked to the hominin lineage. Thus, Ar. ramidus is the best evidence discovered thus far for the root of the hominin family tree.

What is the origin of Ardipithecus?

Ardipithecus is a genus of an extinct hominine that lived during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene epochs in the Afar Depression, Ethiopia.

What did Ardipithecus look like?

This species was a facultative biped and stood upright on the ground but could move on all four limbs in trees. Features of the anatomy are extremely primitive. upper canines are shaped like diamonds, rather than the pointed shape seen in African apes, whch is a derived feature shared with Australopithecus afarensis .

What are Australopithecus known for?

The genus Australopithecus is a collection of hominin species that span the time period from 4.18 to about 2 million years ago. Australopiths were terrestrial bipedal ape-like animals that had large chewing teeth with thick enamel caps, but whose brains were only very slightly larger than those of great apes.

Which statement best describes some important characteristics of Ardipithecus?

Which statement best describes some important characteristics of Ardipithecus? Ardipithecus had a transitional pelvis and lived in a woodland forest environment.

What came first Ardipithecus and Australopithecus?

Ardipithecus, the earliest known genus of the zoological family Hominidae (the group that includes humans and excludes great apes) and the likely ancestor of Australopithecus, a group closely related to and often considered ancestral to modern human beings.

Where was Ardipithecus found?

The Ardipithecus ramidus fossils were discovered in Ethiopia’s harsh Afar desert at a site called Aramis in the Middle Awash region, just 46 miles (74 kilometers) from where Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, was found in 1974.

Why Ardipithecus is a unique find?

Ultimately, Ardipithecus fills one of the last major gaps in human evolution; it shows that the last common ancestor that humans shared with chimpanzees was not a chimpanzee-like animal, and it did not even resemble a chimpanzee in fundamental aspects of its biology.

What came before Ardipithecus?

afarensis. Before the discovery of Ardipithecus and other pre-Australopithecus hominins, it was assumed that the chimpanzee–human last common ancestor and preceding apes appeared much like modern day chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas, which would have meant these three changed very little over millions of years.

What was the first race of humans?

The First Humans
One of the earliest known humans is Homo habilis, or “handy man,” who lived about 2.4 million to 1.4 million years ago in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Where did the first human come from?

Africa

Humans first evolved in Africa, and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa.