Science's breakthrough of the year: Uncovering 'Ardi' [View All]

[Adsos Letter]

Source: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Natasha Pinol

Fossil of early hominid heads the journal's list of top 10 scientific advances of 2009.

The research that brought to light the fossils of Ardipithecus ramidus, a hominid species that lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia, has topped Science's list of this year's most significant scientific breakthroughs. The monumental find predates "Lucy,"—previously the most ancient partial skeleton of a hominid on record—by more than one million years, and it inches researchers ever-closer to the last common ancestor shared by humans and chimpanzees.

Science and its publisher, AAAS, the nonprofit science society, recognize the Ardipithecus ramidus fossils, including the partial skeleton named "Ardi," as 2009's Breakthrough of the Year. They also identify nine other important scientific accomplishments from this past year in a top ten list, appearing in a special news feature in the journal's 18 December 2009 issue.

The Ardipithecus research "changes the way we think about early human evolution, and it represents the culmination of 15 years of painstaking, highly collaborative research by 47 scientists of diverse expertise from nine nations, who carefully analyzed 150,000 specimens of fossilized animals and plants," said Dr. Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief of Science, in a related editorial.

Back in October, an international team of scientists offered this first comprehensive, peer-reviewed description of Ardipithecus. This research appeared in a special issue of Science, published on 2 October 2009 (http://www.sciencemag.org/ardipithecus/). Until then, the fossil record contained only scant evidence of other hominids older than "Lucy."

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/aaft-bo121109.php
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Sorry; the title is a bit misleading (it is the publication Science which has designated this discovery as such, not "Science" in the larger meaning. Still, an important discovery.
Edit: "Science's list of the nine other groundbreaking achievements from 2009" are also listed.