Oldest Human Skeleton Found - Disproves Missing Link

Scientists yesterday announced the discovery of the oldest fossil skeleton of a human ancestor in Ethiopia's harsh Afar desert. The find reveals that our forebears underwent a previously unknown stage of evolution more than a million years before Lucy, the iconic early human ancestor specimen that walked the Earth 3.2 million years ago.

The skeleton belonged to a small-brained, 110-pound female nicknamed 'Ardi.' The fossil puts to rest the notion that a chimpanzee-like missing link would eventually be found at the root of the human family tree. Indeed, the new evidence suggests that the study of chimpanzee anatomy and behavior - long used to infer the nature of the earliest human ancestors - is largely irrelevant to understanding our beginnings.