Rent Discovering Ardi (2009)
3.7 of 5 from 46 ratings
1h 30min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
"Discovering Ardi" looks at the discovery of a 4.4 million year-old skeleton named Ardipithecus ramidus, nicknamed "Ardi". Discovery Channel takes a look at the sustained, intensive investigation that took place before this landmark discovery was made public and announced in the prestigious journal Science. "Discovering Ardi" begins its story with the 1974 discovery of Australopithecus afarensis in Hadar, northeastern Ethiopia. Nicknamed "Lucy", this 3.2 million-year-old skeleton was, at the time, the oldest hominid skeleton ever found. As this programme documents, Lucy's title would be overtaken twenty years later by the 1994 discovery of Ardi in Ethiopia's Afar region in the Middle Awash study area. It would take an elite international team of experts the next fifteen years to delicately, meticulously and methodically piece together Ardi and her lost world in order to reveal her significance. The scientific investigation began in the Ethiopian desert 17 years ago, and now opens a new chapter on human evolution, revealing the first evolutionary steps our ancestors took after we diverged from a common ancestor we once shared with living chimpanzees. Ardi's centerpiece skeleton, the other hominids she lived with, and the rocks, soils, plants and animals that made up her world were analysed in laboratories around the world. - Actors:
- Mike Rowe
- Directors:
- Rod Paul
- Producers:
- Rod Paul, Paul Gasek
- Narrated By:
- Mike Rowe
- Writers:
- Steve Eder, Jonathan Wickham
- Studio:
- Discovery Channel
- Genres:
- Documentary, Special Interest
