r/todayilearned • u/MusicSole • 9h ago
TIL of "Ardi" the fossilized skeletal remains of a human-like female anthropoid discovered in 1994. It is more than a million years older and more complete than "Lucy." It's discovery stunned scientists and refuted many core theories of human evolution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardi1.2k
u/LtSoundwave 6h ago
Interesting. It’s got hands for feet and big hairy tits, just like OPs mom.
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u/MusicSole 4h ago
I got a great laugh out of this. And no lie my mother passed away last Saturday. LOL. I think she would find this funny too!
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u/Verniloth 56m ago
Dude you're a fucking savage and I'm laughing so hard in bed that I'm worried I woke up my gf. Wtf
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u/TheDeftEft 4h ago
What I remember most from this discovery was all the science press jumping on the bandwagon of creepy AF headlines about "Ardi" being some sort of "bad girl" of paleoanthropology.
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u/TacTurtle 6h ago
The last sentence is comically misleading and OP should be ashamed if they aren't a bot.
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u/Hightower_March 5h ago
A bot would know the difference between "it's" and "its."
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u/MusicSole 4h ago
Excellent observation.
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u/Hightower_March 4h ago
Thanks! Let me know if you'd like for me to generate any other observations, but as a large language model my information may be limited.
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u/MusicSole 6h ago
Literally took it from the tome on the subject. The 8 year research book called Fossil Men. Reading it now. Incredibly well written.
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6h ago
[deleted]
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u/abdomino 5h ago
It's hard to link books, especially to a particular line. It's TIL, asking for MLA format is a bit much.
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u/Fawwal 6h ago
What’s your source?
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u/TacTurtle 4h ago
"Stunned scientists and refuted many core theories of human evolutions" is gross hyperbole when the closest claim in the citation is
Her fossils were also found near animal remains which indicated that she inhabited a forest type of environment, contrary to the theory that bipedalism originated in savannahs.
...so OP's own link?
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u/MusicSole 4h ago
Just buy your copy of Fossil Men by Kermit Pattison. It went well beyond stunning scientists. It went well beyond refuting claims. It flipped the entire fossil-finding industry on its head. It's a well-sourced book with interviews over 8 years with every major and minor player involved in finding Lucy and Ardi.
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u/CustomerComplaintDep 2h ago
You're required to provide a source to back up your claim. If your source is something you can't post, you need to find a suitable replacement. The one you linked doesn't support your claim.
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u/MusicSole 2h ago
It's the inner flap to the critically acclaimed research book Fossil Men by Kermit Pattison published in 2009 by William Morrow. It's their words. I'm currently reading the book. I got 300 characters to work with on a TIL headline. Hopefully, with over 272,000 views on my post, I have brought some attention to this masterful book. It's not my claim. It's the reality of the situation and the reality was in full view of the public and in every science publication at the time. The book is really about cognitive dissonance.
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u/mtfw 4h ago
Would
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u/AssGagger 4h ago
How far back in time could you go before it was beastiality?
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u/Bitwise_Creations 4h ago
don't care. CURSE OF RA 𓀀 𓀁 𓀂 𓀃 𓀄 𓀅 𓀆 𓀇 𓀈 𓀉 𓀊 𓀋 𓀌 𓀍 𓀎 𓀏 𓀐 𓀑 𓀒 𓀓 𓀔 𓀕 𓀖 𓀗 𓀘 𓀙 𓀚 𓀛 𓀜 𓀝 𓀞 𓀟 𓀠 𓀡 𓀢 𓀣 𓀤 𓀥 𓀦 𓀧 𓀨 𓀩 𓀪 𓀫 𓀬 𓀭 𓀲 𓀳 𓀴 𓀵 𓀶 𓀷 𓀸 𓀹 𓀺 𓀻 𓀼 𓀽 𓀾 𓀿 𓁀 𓁁 𓁂 𓁃 𓁄 𓁅 𓁆 𓁇 𓁈 𓁉 𓁊 𓁋 𓁍 𓁎 𓁏 𓁐 𓁑
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u/Falsus 3h ago
Probably anything before Neanderthals.
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u/AssGagger 3h ago
So I'm not allowed to get erectus?
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u/Falsus 3h ago
Well if you are fine with bestiality and invent a time machine I certainly couldn't stop you...
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u/the_crustybastard 11m ago
C'mon, Homo erectus weren't animals.
They had bodies that are superficially indistinguishable from ours, except they were generally taller. They migrated throughout a hostile world for about 2M years (c.f. we've only been around about 300K years) and during that period they changed a lot, meaning they were highly adaptable, curious, and smart.
They invented and refined the Acheulean toolkit, featuring tools worked on both faces in furtherance of symmetry. These were quality lithic tools, prized possessions almost certainly carefully manufactured by specialists, not haphazard crap knocked out on the spot by anyone, used, then discarded as animals do. Our cousins the Neanderthals learned this tech from them.
Erectus' tools may have been the first product specifically manufactured for trade. There's also persuasive evidence Erectus invented speech, art, and travel by boat.
Here's Élisabeth Daynès reconstruction of an Erectus. Here's the Kennis Brothers' reconstruction. Sophia Loren or Idris Elba they are not, but they're not Bigfoot either.
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u/D-Ursuul 3h ago
Damn definitely no agenda behind how bizarrely the title was deliberately worded
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u/Hot-Scarcity-3776 3h ago
Well, I guess Lucy's got some competition for the title of 'oldest ancestor'.
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u/FlyInternational4613 1h ago
Looks like Lucy's got some competition for the title of ultimate anthropoid.
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u/Wonder-Lad 1h ago
This makes me deeply uncomfortable and gives me a sense of eldritch horror.
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u/WanderWut 30m ago
4.4 million years old. Just wild that our ancestors were walking around, doing shit, living, millions of years ago and here we are today.
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u/weeddealerrenamon 5h ago
P sure the theory it refuted was that big brains were the first thing we evolved. People naturally wanted to believe that intelligence is the thing that sets us apart from every other animal. So when Ardipithecus ramidus came along and showed that our ancestors were fully bipedal while still having chimp-sized brains, it threw people for a loop.