Read and write a summary in 400 to 500 words. Article 17 The Human Family\'s Ear

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Read and write a summary in 400 to 500 words.

Article 17 The Human Family's Earliest Ancestors Studies of hominid fossils, like 4.4-million-year-old "Ardi," are changing ideas about human origins. ANN GIBBONS im White is standing with a group of restless men atop Homo sapiens like us-all the way back to Ardipithecus kad ? ridge in the Afar desert of Ethiopia. A few of them are abba, ore ofthe earliest known baminids, who lived almost six pacing back and forth, straining to see if they can spot millon years ago. At last count, the Middle Awash project, which fragments of beige bone in the reddish-brown rubble belowkes its name from this patch of the Afar desert and includes eager to start their search as children at an Easter egg hunt. At the 0 scientists from 18 nations, has found 300 specimens from seven botom of the hill is a 25-foot-long caim of black rocks erected different hominid species that lived here one after the other. in the style of an Afar grave, so large it looks like a monument to Ardi, short for Ardipithecs ramidus, is now the region's a fallen hero. And in a way it is. White and his colleaguesasm best-known fossil, having made news worldwide this past fall bled it to mark the place where they first found traces, in 1994, when White and others published a series of papers detailing her of "Ardi," a female who lived 4.4 million years ago. Her skeleton skeleton and ancient environment. She is not the oldest member has been describod as one of the most important discoveries of of the extended baman family, but she is by far the most com- the past century, and she is changing basic ideas about how our plete of the early bominids; most of her skull and teeth as well as extremely rare bones of her pelvis, hands, anms, legs and feet earliest ancestors looked and moved. More than 14 years later, White, a wiry 59-year-old paleo have so far been found. anthropologist from the University of California at Berkeley, is With sunlight beginning to bleach out the gray-and-beige ter- here again, on an annual pilgrimage to see if seasonal rains have rain, we see a clood of dust on the horizon. Soon two new Toy- exposed any new bits of Ardi's bones or teeth. He often fires up ota Land Cruisers pull up on the promontory, and a half-dozen the fossil hunters who work with him by chanting. "Hominid, Alisera men jump out wearing Kufi caps and cotton sarongs, a hominid, hominidl Gol Go! Go!" But he can't let them go yet. few einched up with belts that also hold long, carved daggers. appear to be younger than 40 few Only a weck earlier, an Alisera tribesman had threatened to kill Most of these clan "elders" te and two of his Ethiopian colleagues if they returned to Alisera men seem to survive to old age. these fossil beds near the remote village of Aramis, home of a After customary greetings and handshaking, White gets dow clan of Alisera nomads. The threat is probably just a bluff, but o his hands and knees with a few fossil hunters to show the White doesn't mess wich the Alisera, who are renowned for tribesmen how the researchers crawl on the ground, shoulder to being teritorial and settling disputes with AK-47s. As a pecau shoulder, to look for fosils. With Ethiopian paleoanthropolo- tion, the scientists travel with six Afar regional police officers gist and project co-leader Berhane Asfaw translaring to Amharis and another person translating from Amharie to Afarifña, White Arranging this meeting with tribal leaders to negotiate access explains that these stones and bones reveal the ancient history to the fossil beds has already cost the researchers two precious of humankind. The Alisera smile wanly, apparently amused that days out of their five-week field season. The best-laid plans anyone would want to grovel on the ground for a living. They change every day." says White, who has also had to deal with grant permission to search for fossils for now, But they add one he researchers must teach them how armed with their own AK-47s poisonous snakes, scorpions, malarial mosquitoes, lions, hyenas, flash floods, dast tornadoes, warring tribesmen and contami- nated food and water. Nothing in the field comes eas caveat. Someday, they say, t to get history from the groand. The quest for fossils of human ancestors began in eamest As we wait for the Alisera to arrive, White explains that the after Charles Darwin proposed in 1871, in his book The Descen leam returns to this bostile spot year after year because it's the of Man and Selection in Relanion so Sex, that hamans probably only place in the world to yield fossils that span such a kng arose in Africa. He didn't hase his claim on hard evidence; the streich of human evolution, some six million years. In addi- only hominid fossils then known were Neanderthals, who had tion to Ardi, a possible direct anvestor, it is possible here to find lived in Europe less than 100,000 years ago. Darwin suggested hominid fossils from as reetly as 160,000 years ag0-an early that cur "early progenitors" lived on the African continent becaase 90

Explanation / Answer

in human family earliest ancestors, gibbons provides the first popular account of this into green discoveries and of rivalry and collaboration among the discoveries and in grocery fast-paced to read a story unfolds in mini remote and drug locals from the middle Awards of Ethiopia to the tugen hills of Kenya and Djurab desert of Chad. GIbbon tells of hard drive and dedicated teams and ending with extreme need blowing stand illness and other hazards of fieldwork in Africa for success demands years or decades of persistence after all how many may not have been common phrases in their day and only fortuitous circumstances of gentle Rapid burial in suitable sediments kept a Carcass from being a carnivores meal,allowing it perchance through fossilized. Where is the meticulous Mercurial paleontologist Tim white co-leader open International team which can unparalleled track record of a spectacular discoveries from the oldest modern human skull to one of the oldest human and ancestors and geologist meave leaky who has stepped out from The Shadow of the most famous surname in human Origins research to make singular contributions of alone Michael brunette a French expert on ancient who fit mammals inspired by Charles Darwin and Louis leakey to pursue humanoids brunette back that's why not looking for fossils in the celebrated cradle of humankind East African rift Valley he went to chad with tinted at its human Fossil potential as early as 1961. another hominid would not come to light there until 1995 but brunette steampod that australopithecine jawbone and then explode much older sides into thousand one Italian student on brunettes steam are not the cranium nicknamed '' Tiumai''formerly named Sahelan and thropus tchedensis, it is currently the oldest known humanoid skull and process the images of our evolutionary line as far back as 7 million years ago as given strides so ancient that brunette said that to my good' touch with its finger' the last and ancestors shared by humans and chimpanzees.

, in other words gibbons explains what values paleoanthropologists have been doing over the past 15 years compiling, feuding and making dramatic discoveries nAnchoring garrative to the anatomy that is the foundation of physical and anthropology gibbons intentionally emphasizes the personality is involved. Leakesque is one unspoken price in field research on human Origins and several scientist acknowledge here there youthful inspiration by Louis and Mary leakey careers one was born Johansson slave celebrated for the Lucy Fossil discovered in 1974 that find temporary as the oldest human and sister from the state of scientific affairs at that time gibbons narrative drives forward the hunt since 1990 for how many days till to Lucy Amity particulars of newly excavated fossils, which include a skull from Chad that provisionally is the oldest human progenitor at six or seven million years old,, gibbons pointedly drum sizes detailed tutorial attitudes toward fossils science in the flesh is very popular.

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