Ardi: Earliest Human 'Stood up for Sex'
Take a girl out for a meal and you may think yourself quite the traditionalist. But most men won't know quite how traditional they're being: the world's first hominids learnt to stand on two feet simply to carry food to woo women, according to one leading expert. Professor Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University made his claim following the much-publicised discovery of 'Ardi' last week, the oldest-known member of the human family tree. Ardi, or Ardipithecus ramidus in full, roamed the forests of Ethiopia some 4.4 million years ago - over a million years before the next oldest hominid, Lucy, who was unearthed in 1974.
Yet her arrival has already sparked a debate among anthropologists as to why she and her contemporaries were bipedal when they still lived in trees: current knowledge contends early humans only began walking upright when they moved from forests to the flat lands of the African savannah. Dr Lovejoy believes it's all in the teeth - he points out that Ardi's male counterparts had small canines and stood upright, rather than the larger, more fierce teeth expected of males fighting for the attentions of a female. Thus he believes males found out they stood a better chance of mating if they could leave their hands free to carry food as gifts for the female.
Ardi may have been taken with males who could provide food with hands free from walking on all foursLovejoy also believes Ardi's ancient suitors may suggest monogamous relationships go back much further than previously thought, as females would be more likely to stick with steady, more reliable bipedal males rather than their knuckle-dragging, philandering counterparts. And while there may not be piles of evidence to back the professor's claims, it'll give plenty of hope to those of us, myself included, with rather less than a six-pack to stun the ladies. Indeed, if you want to impress someone it seems you'd be better off standing straight and buying a box of chocolates than spending hours sculpting your 'guns' down the gym.
Ardi was found in the Western Afar Rift region of Ethiopia, the area many believe to be the birthplace of modern mankind. Yet with her she is some way off the so-called 'missing link' between humans and chimps, which scientists feel existed some seven million years ago."This is not that common ancestor, but it's the closest we have ever been able to come," says Dr Tim White, director of the Human Evolution Research Centre at the University of California, Berkeley, who first reported Ardi's discovery in Science last Friday.
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It's ironic that early humans like Ardi became bipedal in order to increase their chances of mating, as the resulting changes in muscle and bone shape actually made childbirth more difficult. Ardi and Lucy were probably cursing the day they met those smooth-walking, fruit-carrying biped boys, once it came down to childbirth - unless somebody discovered a prehistoric epidural?
Talk about mis-leading headlines! But seriously, it's very true - if a guy brings you food, you're not going to chuck him out of the tree are you?
So evolution means I should bring my girlfriend food? As long as Mr Lovejoy doesn't start mentioning Louboutin heels...
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