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Note: Adult language

Its always a struggle to stay on top, to be the hottest, freshest face on the block. Especially if you are a famous prehistoric human ancestor named Lucy. For Australopithecus afarensis ladies, its a jungle out there.

As if on cue, in October of 2009, "Ardi" burst onto the anthropology scene, making the cover of Science in her debut. She's the most ancient human ancestor discovered to date, and the hottest thing to hit anthropology since, well, Lucy.

Who is Ardipithecus ramidus? How does she compare to Lucy? And how has she forever changed the way we think about human evolution?

Correction 12/1/2010: The script of this video states that Lucy was thought to be a "possible descendant of chimpanzees," but this is not substantiated in the literature. Both Ardi and Lucy existed long after the most recent common ancestor of chimps and humans. Thanks to Jay Ingram for pointing out my need to brush up on human evolution. :) - RS

_{Host: Rheanna Sand}

_{Photo credits:
Wikimedia users 120, Andrew, 1997, and Kabir
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/
http://www.ilike2learn.com/
http://www.uni-kl.de/aegee/kaiserslautern/
http://www.wildchimpanzees.org/
http://radicalrecruit.files.wordpress.com/
J.H. Matternes}

_References:

_{DOI: 10.1126/science.1175802}

_{http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8285180.stm
http://www.sciencemag.org}