1. seed
  2. The Buzz: The Ardi Bandwagon

The Buzz: The Ardi Bandwagon

By ejohnson on October 21, 2009.

i-61b645e52979a04759492b9e29bf97b4-Ardipithecus-ramidus.jpgOn October 1, 2009 paleontologists announced the discovery of the oldest known primitive hominid fossil, Ardipithecus ramidus dubbed "Ardi," after 17 years of quietly studying its significance. Nearly a month after its grand unveiling to the media, biologists, paleontologists, and evolutionary anthropologists are still atwitter as scores of articles continue to be published around Ardi. ScienceBloggers are no exception this week, beginning with Razib Khan's compelling conversation on Ardi with John Hawks on Bloggingheads.tv, as seen on Gene Expression. On The Primate Diaries, Eric Michael Johnson discusses reexamining A. ramidus in light of the human origins mythos. Laelaps' Brian Switek talks about the similarities between the hype surrounding this summer's "Ida" fossil discovery and the forthcoming Ardi program on the Discovery Channel. And over on Pharyngula, PZ Myers warns readers of a possible "creationist response" spinning Ardi's lineage in the evolutionary tree in their favor.

Tags
Anthropology
evolution

More like this

The Buzz: The Great Debate
The pitched battle between evolutionary theory and Intelligent Design has become one of the signature conflicts of the decade. On Pharyngula, PZ Myers picks up the pieces after his debate with Jerry Bergman on whether ID should be taught in schools. Unambiguously he writes, "creationists are not…
Ardipithecus ramidus
What a day to be stuck in airplanes for hours on end; I had to slurp in a bunch of files on my iPhone and then look at them on that itty-bitty screen, just to catch up on the story of Ardipithecus. Fortunately, you can just read Carl Zimmer's excellent summary to find out what's cool about it. For…
Introducing Ida - the great-great-great-great-grandmother (or aunt)
Another super-cool day at PLoS (one of those days when I wish I was not telecommuting, but sharing in the excitement with the colleagues at the Mothership) - the publication of a very exciting article describing a rarely well-preserved fossil of a prehistoric primate in a lineage to which we all…
Darwin, "Ardi", and the African Apes
When I wrote about the public unveiling of Ardipithecus ramidus (or "Ardi" to the public) last week I contrasted the description of the hominin with the bombastic rollout given to the lemur-like fossil primate "Ida" (Darwinius masillae) this past May. In the latter case it was clear that a media…