Ardi On The Discovery Channel

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Tonight, the Discovery Channel features a special on Ardipithecus ramidus called "Discovering Ardi". Although I haven't seen the video, the website for the project has a dozen video clips featuring Owen Lovejoy discussing the ramifications, some simulation video of Ardipithecus walking and a video on how Jay Matternes created his reconstruction drawing of Ardi.

To me, one interesting outcome from the reporting of Ardipithecus in Science has been the outpouring of "humans are not descended from apes!" stories. Despite what you might have read, there really isn't any basic change in who scholars believe humans are descended from—DNA tests have supported Darwin's theory all along that chimpanzees and African apes and humans are all descended from the same as-yet-undiscovered hominin, some 6 million years ago. Darwin wasn't wrong. What's changed because of 4.4 million year old Ardi's discovery is that the theoretical hominid's characteristics are likely to be less like chimpanzees than previously believed. It'll be interesting to see how the Discovery Channel covers this discussion.