PUSHING BACK THE HISTORY OF MAN BY ONE MILLION YEARS !!??

Remember Lucy ? The fossils of "Lucy" or "australopithecus afarensis", our earliest known ancestor who walked on foot, were discovered in Ethopia in the African Subcontinent, almost thirty five years ago in 1974 and scientists after much thought, hard work and research concluded that "Lucy" lived on this earth about 3.4 million years ago.

Then in 1992, another international research team headed by paleoanthropologist Tim White, found a singular molar tooth embeded in the ancient sediments in the Afar Triangle, a desert region of Ethopia abundant in fossils. Over the next two years, White and his colleagues found 110 more fragments, including a partial skeleton with skull, hands, feet, limbs and pelvis in a jungle, 125 kms from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethopia. The fossils were then arranged to give shape to 32 human-like forms of varying age groups. The team of forty seven scientists of University of California, Berkeley, started studying the specimens and after a prolonged period of 15 years, during which span of time, the fossils were subjected to innumerable examinations, comparitive studies and rigorous analysis at Ethopia's National Museum, it was concluded, that the species in question "ardipithecus ramidus" or "Ardi" was more than a million years older than "Lucy". So scientists now started believing that the ancestor of man walked on this earth, 4.4 million years ago !!

And how did that ancestor look like ?

Scientists also say that "Ardi", was about four feet or 1.2 meters tall, weighing about 50 kgs, a mosaic species possessing traits of both the human and the chimpanzee and also walked on two feet. The head was small compared to the powerful muscular body, that remained erect. On one hand, the shape of the hands and feet hinted beyond doubt that "Ardi" was accustomed in climbing trees, but again the structures of the pelvis, buttocks and knees showed that he was equally comfortable in walking. Scientists have also assured that Ardi was not the famous "missing link", as that creature was even more prehistoric than "Ardi" and probably inhabited this earth about 6-7 million years ago.

Our forefathers have inhabited this earth for millions of years and though we have continuously transformed ourselves and thereby survived, have we been able to reach a humane destination or are we in the process of becoming a "Lucy", "Ardi" or the "Missing Link", destined to vanish from the face of the earth in due course of time.