Ardipithecus ramidus
[ ahr-duh-pith-i-kuhs ram-i-duhs, ahr-duh-puh-thee-kuhs ]
/ ˌɑr dəˈpɪθ ɪ kəs ˈræm ɪ dəs, ˌɑr də pəˈθi kəs /
noun
an extinct species of early hominin whose fossil remains were discovered in Ethiopia in the 1990s and have been dated at about 4.4 million years of age: evidence suggests a probable combination of bipedal and tree-climbing behavior, and some believe the species shares a human and African ape lineage, with no direct skeletal relationship to the chimpanzee.
a fossil belonging to this species, most notably the female specimen named Ardi.
Origin of Ardipithecus ramidus
Ardipithecus + New Latin
ramidus, equivalent to Afar
ramid “root” (from the closeness of this species to the roots of humanity) +
-us adjective suffix; coined by U.S. paleoanthropologist Tim White (born 1950) and his colleagues in 1994. At the time of this discovery, the genus
Australopithecus was well established, and White coined the genus name
Ardipithecus to distinguish the new genus from
Australopithecus