Ardi, Getting To Know You, Getting To Know All About You
Posted by: Loren Coleman on October 4th, 2009
It only took 15 years, but in the last week, 11 scientific papers on Ardi (Ardipithecus ramidus) were published. One of the best ways to understand Ardi is by reading John Hawks’ FAQ.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, especially since you can read about this fossil find throughout the mass media, let’s just take a look at the videos and images.
The extremely well-done illustrations are courtesy of J. H. Matternes via Science/AAAS.
Matternes’ drawings of Ardi remind me of Dick Klyver’s Hobbit art that is on the cover of…
…The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates , showing Homo floresiensis.
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About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Wow…what a massive amount of information. Thanks for compiling some of it for us, Loren.
At first 15 years sounds like they were milkin’ this gig for all its worth, but when one considers what they were analyzing, it is a tremendous effort. The deposit in which the fossils were found trapped between two volcanic deposits which were essentially contemporaneously laid down over the span of somewhere between as little as 10, 100 or a few hundred years means that a very complete ecosystem has been fossilized and will reveal details that have never been considered and could answer questions with some definitive data the likes of which have not been available before.
I am curious as to how this will all shake out when the rest of the field gets a chance to examine the findings and bring up their questions. I wonder how much different these new finds are from the older proto-hominins like the Oreopithecus fossils from the Mediterranean basin deposits. A few million years ago the regions had ecologies that were far more similar than they are today.
fascinating..
Facinating artcle. Very infomative, but maybe I’m missing something here? Don’t understand the Julie Andrews in ‘The King and I’ link.
FMurphy, did you miss the title of this posting?
The song, not the singer, alludes to the fact that Ardi is teaching the teachers (the anthropologists and us) what we need to learn about this fossil form:
It’s a very ancient saying,
But a true and honest thought,
That if you become a teacher,
By your pupils you’ll be taught.
As a teacher I’ve been learning —
You’ll forgive me if I boast —
And I’ve now become an expert,
On the subject I like most.
Getting to know you.
Getting to know you,
Getting to know all about you.
Getting to like you,
Getting to hope you like me.
this is mind-blowing! the (possibly pseudo) bipedalism itself. i would like to know more about the position of the skull on the vertebrae column. the thumb! what’s up with that thumb?! smaller proportions than pan! Ardi to Lucy is a HUGE leap in a short time! i have a feeling that Ardi OR Lucy is going to end up a parallel. either way, close enough for me. wow!
This is amazing. I’m being forced to re-examine my beliefs.
Sorry Loren, must have skipped over title. Understand now. Thanks.
Thanks for the information, Loren.
Definitely worth digesting.
And it only took 15 years… 🙂
I think maybe this is a ape/monkey however this fossil does not prove man came from apes. I mean they don’t even know if walked upright and I know I will probably get hammered by negative comments but it just seems to be a monkey to me and humans look like humans in my opinion we have 2 different paths in nature and I do not believe in evolution or the theory that one animal produces another animal of totally new species and monkey/apes are different than humans. I do like the drawings they are great and I know it energize the science world to do more research which is great .
Sigh…yet another missing link.
And no doubt it too will eventually be shown to be just a species of extinct primate.
I can hardly wait for the next one-and-only human ancestor that should come along in another few years as soon as someone finds another monkey bone or tooth.
[yawn].
Maeko Whats ”pseudo bipedality?
Sounds like Jake the Peg not using his extra leg!
HOOSIERHUNTER
Where’s all these missing links?
Are you mixing up newspaper hype with history neatly unfolding? We can’t apparently have sasquatch to drool over but we can have such as Ardi. Not my kind of girl, but she makes up for it with her strange beauty in the shape of beautiful theory, beautiful research and beautiful accessibility. One can dwell on the doubtless beauty of how in her time, she was a glossy coated, bright eyed, thriving part of a natural Eden-with lively offspring! She is a rare event and isnt the thing thus to do, enjoy her coming out.
Despite 15 years of work I think there is a lot more to be decided as the researchers peers have not had their chance to conjure up and come out with alternative scenarios? There will surely be a lot of questions and a lot of answers.
I wonder as a non-expert, about the extent of her bipedality at such an early time, was it partial in view of her climbing feet? About her musculature, wasnt it much better developed? Did she really stand bolt upright as shown? Was she a bit of a jumper, like a lemur, with those strong looking legs and hugh hands?
In addition she looks very much like one of the cryptozoological creatures that we find so interesting and just brings them all a little bit nearer if we can suspend reality a little.
PS and dont forget HOOSIERUNTER you might be talkin about our greatx grandmother!