Ardipithecus

• Ethiopia

Ardipithecus is the name of a genus of great apes, are counted in the following ways:

• Ardipithecus ramidus
• Ardipithecus kadabba

Ardipithecus ramidus was established in 1994 initially called by its discoverers as Australopithecus ramidus, in 1995 but made ​​by the same research group using a short corrigendum under the new generic name Ardipithecus next to the genus Australopithecus. In October 2009, a comprehensive analysis of the most completely preserved fossil " Ardi " and several dozen other finds of Ardipithecus ramidus was published in Science.

Ardipithecus kadabba was by its discoverer, first described as a subspecies of Ardipithecus ramidus, however, made ​​in 2001 (as Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba ), 2004 as a separate species in addition Ardipithecus. At the same time was noted, however, that the genus Ardipithecus, Sahelanthropus and Orrorin belong to the same circle shape and - after finding additional artifacts - could possibly be associated with a single genus.

An anatomical proximity to Ardipithecus also includes the much younger Burtele - foot, which was recovered in the Ethiopian excavation area Woranso - Mille and so far not assigned to any particular species.

What are the kinship relations with older and younger species is unclear.

Naming

The name of the genus is partly derived from the Afar language (from " ardi " = ground ), partly from the Greek (from " πίθηκος ", ancient Greek, pronounced " píthēkos " = monkey) and therefore means " Bodenaffe ".