Yes, I think it must have been an intermediate stage, too. It’s just hard to imagine what set of competitive pressures would bring a woodland inhabiting creature, with physical characteristics that enabled her to be a very efficient tree climber/dweller to also stand up and walk around on two feet. As the documentary points out, bipedalism is inefficient and slow. What advantage did it offer to Ardi? I guess I wasn’t convinced by the argument that it allowed males to bring breakfast in bed to their mates.

As my husband and I and our friends have aged and begun to experience increasing stiffness in our backs and hips, I’ve come to believe that this bipedal design of ours must be a work in progress. Hopefully, all the kinks will be ironed out before another 4 million years pass.

I think an interpretation of the Judeo-Christian creation story that allows for days that last hundreds of millions of years is much more sensible than strict, literal interpretations.

I once took the opportunity to talk to some Jehovah’s witnesses for several hours (why? cause I’m curious) and their explanation of the days of creation were that a day could have been the equivalent of millions of years and the use of the term days was used purely metaphorically.

and by all means, if I’ve misquoted something, or offended, please correct me

Ardi’s not the same as us because 4.4 million years is a lot of time for evolution to bring about significant change.

“This proves that there was a race of man on this earth before adam and was later wiped out along with the dinosaurs.”

First of all, Ardi doesn’t appear to have had the intelligence to make tools, tame fire, hold a conversation or conceive of God. So it’s a way big stretch to call her human. Secondly, do you really believe that dinosaurs and Ardi co-existed?

Sheeeeeeesh.

Creationists are wrong in that the earth is only 7000 years old. The light being seen thru the hubble telescope is millions of years old because of the distance that it takes for light to reach the earth. Fossils found on this earth are accurately dated to millions of years old. Therefore how do we explain this?

If you use the Authorized King James Version of the bible it explains everything in Genesis and several other books of the bible.

The earth was created in the first 2 verses in the bible. Then there is a huge gap in history until the third verse pics back up and starts the 7000 year ago creation story of adam.

Other verses in the bible and books talk about what was on this earth those eons ago and how lucifer reigned upon the earth. There are also 2 different types of men mentioned in genesis.

For a very indepth study better than I could describe here go to this site and it is all layed out.

http://www.kjvbible.org/

Scientists are right in that this earth is very very old and the things they have found are valid, only out of context to how it happened. Ardipithecus proved that we did not evolve from monkeys, and that there was once a creature on this earth (early version of man to say) that is not the same as us. This proves that there was a race of man on this earth before adam and was later wiped out along with the dinosaurs.

For the creationists – since you don’t believe in evolution then you don’t have to worry about flu viruses evolving. If you’ve had the flu once, you’ll never get it again because the virus will never change, never evolve.

Soooo, please quit getting flu vaccines for yourselves and your children. It seems that there are shortages nearly every year, so if you believers in bible science want to live your creed, you can opt out of the vaccines, leaving more for the rest of us.

Thank you, we’ll put them to good use.

Anyway, back to the Point; This is an incredible find that allows me personally to feel much more connected to this world we all live in. It’s harrowing to learn that humanoid species have existed for so much longer than we might have ever imagined.

Though, the offered explanations for “Ardi”s smaller canine teeth and bipedality feel a little forced. I’m curious as to what constitutes evidence of the use of tools, as it seems to me that “Ardi” may easily used, say, sticks or rocks as primitive tools.

Thanks, you can’t pay for entertainment like that.