White Tim D, Lovejoy C Owen, Asfaw Berhane, Carlson Joshua P, Suwa Gen
Department of Integrative Biology, Human Evolution Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720;
Department of Anthropology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242-0001;
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Apr 21;112(16):4877-84. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1403659111.
Australopithecus fossils were regularly interpreted during the late 20th century in a framework that used living African apes, especially chimpanzees, as proxies for the immediate ancestors of the human clade. Such projection is now largely nullified by the discovery of Ardipithecus. In the context of accumulating evidence from genetics, developmental biology, anatomy, ecology, biogeography, and geology, Ardipithecus alters perspectives on how our earliest hominid ancestors--and our closest living relatives--evolved.
在20世纪后期，南方古猿化石常常在这样一个框架下被解读：该框架将现存的非洲猿类，尤其是黑猩猩，用作人类进化支系直系祖先的替代参照。如今，阿迪始祖猿的发现很大程度上推翻了这种推断。在遗传学、发育生物学、解剖学、生态学、生物地理学和地质学不断积累的证据背景下，阿迪始祖猿改变了我们对于最早的原始人类祖先以及现存最近亲缘物种进化方式的看法。
