I’ve been watching the Discovery episode that aired last Sunday on the 4.4 million year old fossil skeleton of “Ardi” (Ardipithecus ramidus). I’ve also started reading the articles that Science Magazine has made available online.

At this point all I have to say is “Wow!”

Well, not quite all…I remember when (see how old I sound!) there was fervid conversation about whether in the hominid line we were bipedal or large-brained first. Such vehemence there was. Then Lucy came along and decided that argument once and for all. Now there’s another female ancestor who is blowing apart questions we didn’t even know we had. This thing about knuckle-walking as an evolutionary change that came after the split of the evolutionary line that produced both the chimpanzee and humans — it raises the possibility of the question about whether uprightness was present prior to that lineage division. Maybe not a strong possibility — in fact probably absurd since it would involve the chimp/human ancestor having made the “decision” to become bipedal, and then the chimp “un-deciding” — but there nonetheless. Such notions, if nothing else, are fun to think about.

And the question of the grasping toe. Goodness. Such delights to ponder.