My Favorite Fossil: Ardipithecus Ramidus; The First Walker?

[Patrick]

My Favorite Fossil: Ardipithecus Ramidus; The First Walker?

[T_aquaticus]

Another illustration and reference to help discussion along:

The Ar. ramidus pelvis has a mosaic of characters for both bipedality and climbing. Left to right: Human, Au. afarensis (“Lucy”), Ar. ramidus , Pan (chimpanzee). The ischial surface is angled near its midpoint to face upward in Lucy and the human (blue double arrows), showing that their hamstrings have undergone transformation for advanced bipedality, whereas they are primitive in the chimpanzee and Ar. ramidus (blue arrows). All three hominid ilia are vertically short and horizontally broad, forming a greater sciatic notch (white arrows) that is absent in Pan . A novel growth site [the anterior inferior iliac spine (yellow arrows)] is also lacking in Pan .
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/326/5949/71/tab-figures-data

[T.j_Runyon]

If this interpretation of these tracks is correct, I’d say Ardi isn’t a direct ancestor:

Possible hominin footprints from the late Miocene (c. 5.7 Ma) of Crete?