Discovering ARDI on Discovery Channel

CEBU, Philippines - Discovery Channel has announced the premiere of a two-hour special, DISCOVERING ARDI, documenting the sustained, intensive investigation leading up to the landmark publication of the Ardipithecus ramidus fossils of a 4.4 million-year-old female partial skeleton nicknamed “Ardi”. Discovery Channel has been granted exclusive broadcast rights for DISCOVERING ARDI, which is scheduled to premiere today, December 6 at 9:00 pm (PHL). To accompany the program, Discovery has also launched an extensive website, www.discovery.com/ardi for people who want to know more about Ardi and her surroundings.

Ardi is now the oldest skeleton from our (hominid) branch of the primate family tree. These Ethiopian discoveries reveal an early grade of human evolution in Africa that predated the famous Australopithecus nicknamed “Lucy”. Ardipithecus was a woodland creature with a small brain, long arms, and short legs. The pelvis and feet show a primitive form of two-legged walking on the ground, but Ardipithecus was also a capable tree climber, with long fingers and big toes that allowed its feet to grasp like those of an ape. The discoveries answer questions about how hominids became bipedal.

Narrated by Discovery Channel’s DIRTY JOBS host Mike Rowe, DISCOVERING ARDI begins its story with the 1974 discovery of Australopithecus afarensis in Hadar, northeastern Ethiopia. This 3.2-million-year-old skeleton, “Lucy”, was, at the time, the oldest hominid skeleton ever found. As the programme documents, Lucy’s title would be overtaken 20 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 15 years to delicately, meticulously and methodically piece together Ardi and her lost world in order to reveal her significance.

Utilizing both location sequences and extensive computer-generated animation, DISCOVERING ARDI details the original research. The documentary also features dramatic aerial footage filmed in 2007, capturing the stark beauty and drama of the Middle Awash depression. No re-creations took place.

The scientific investigation that began in the Ethiopian desert 17 years ago 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 analyzed in laboratories around the globe. The scientists have now published their findings in the prestigious journal Science.

“Discovery Channel is thrilled to tell the story of Ardipithecus ramidus. In DISCOVERING ARDI, we show viewers the scientific analysis undertaken by this international team of 47 scientists as they piece together the hominid bones and link the evidence of thousands of other animals and plant fossils. The science in DISCOVERING ARDI is core to our mission and we have taken great care to tell the story of a great scientific find,” said John Ford, President and General Manager of Discovery Channel.

DISCOVERING ARDI is the result of 10-year collaboration between the Middle Awash research project and Primary Pictures of Atlanta. Director Rod Paul and his team worked closely with the scientists to develop an unprecedented level of detail, accuracy and coverage of the discovery of Ardipithecus ramidus, much of it as it happened, on location in Ethiopia. Through permissions granted by the Ethiopian Government, initial filming took place in 1999 and was followed by three additional shoots in the desert research area and at the National Museum in Addis Ababa. Additional filming was done at The University of Tokyo laboratory of project scientist Dr Gen Suwa and locations in the United States. DISCOVERING ARDI is produced for Discovery Channel by Primary Pictures.