Oldest human skeleton offers new clues to evolution

The 2009 article challenges the belief that humans evolved from chimpanzees to support the belief that man and chimps evolved from a common ancestor many years ago. The discovery of this in-between species indicates that humans have been evolving for at least 6 million years. The 1994 discovery was named Ardipithecus ramidus--"Ardi" for short. Ardi's brain was similar to the size of a chimps and Ardi had an opposable toe for grasping branches but Ardi did have some human-like qualities. The fact that Ardi was discovered in Ethiopia is pretty important because this region is believed to be the birthplace of mankind.