A 4.4-million-year-old ankle rewrites the first steps of the human story

Ardi is older than Lucy by a million years, and her ankle still has things to say. A Washington University in St. Louis team led by Thomas (Cody) Prang re-examined the 4.4-million-year-old Ardipithecus skeleton, discovered in Ethiopia in 1994, and found fresh evidence in Communications Biology that she walked upright while keeping a grasping, ape-like foot for climbing. That mix supports the idea that humans evolved from an African ape-like ancestor — and makes Ardi a true in-between: a creature already walking toward us, still holding on to the trees.