Ardipithecus ramidus

Ardipithecus ramidus Temporal range: Zanclean 4.5–4.32 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
A. ramidus at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Suborder:	Haplorhini
Infraorder:	Simiiformes
Family:	Hominidae
Subfamily:	Homininae
Tribe:	Hominini
Genus:	†Ardipithecus
Species:	†A. ramidus
Binomial name
†Ardipithecus ramidus (White, Suwa & Asfaw, 1994)
Synonyms
Australopithecus ramidus

Ardipithecus ramidus is a species of australopithecine from the Afar region of Early Pliocene Ethiopia 4.4 million years ago (mya). The species A. ramidus is the type species for the genus Ardipithecus. There is an older species in this same genus, Ardipithecus kadabba.

A. ramidus, unlike modern hominids, has adaptations for both walking on two legs (bipedality) and life in the trees (arboreality). However, it would not have been as efficient at bipedality as humans, nor at arboreality as non-human great apes. Its discovery, along with Miocene apes, has reworked academic understanding of the chimpanzee–human last common ancestor from appearing much like modern-day chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas to being a creature without a modern analogue.

The facial anatomy (specifically the reduced sexual dimorphism of the canines) suggests that A. ramidus males were less aggressive than those of modern chimps, which is correlated to increased parental care and monogamy in primates. A. ramidus appears to have inhabited woodland and bushland corridors between savannas, and was a generalized omnivore.