Ardi, is the fossilized skeleton of a female
Ardipithecus ramidus who lived 4.4 million years ago
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardipithecus_ramidus]. Ardi is thought to represent a "critical and early part of human evolution," displacing
Lucy as the evolutionary
missing link[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_%28Australopithecus%29] between
chimpanzees or
apes, and
homo sapiens[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091001-ardipithecus-ramidus-ardi-oldest-human-skeleton-fossils.html]. On
October 1, 2009, the journal
Science published a collection of 11 articles detailing a 15-year study of this skeleton, written by 47 authors from 10 countries
[http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1927200,00.html?xid=rss-health][http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1927200,00.html?xid=rss-health]