2.  "Ardi" Upsets Lucy in Hominid Hierarchy

A 15-year scientific effort reached its culmination today when researchers debuted the skeleton of Ardi—4.4-million-year-old human/ape hybrid that is the oldest recorded link between humans and primates. The specimen, which scientists believe resembled a chimpanzee with breasts, has been described as "rife with anatomical surprises" and is poised to revolutionize much of the current thinking about human development. One major discovery is that Ardi was bipedal, upsetting the belief that primates stood up only after migrating to the savannah. According to the Washington Post, the dig began in 1994, when Berkeley graduate student Yohannes Haile-Selassie discovered several finger bones in the Ethiopian desert. Ardi, or Ardipithecus ramidus, is more than 1 million years older than Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton that had previously been considered the missing link. In response to a question about how Ardi would have reacted to meeting Lucy, anatomist C. Owen Lovejoy responded, "she would have challenged her to a race, and Lucy would have won handily."

Read original story in The New York Times | Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009