List of 10 Most Important Discoveries of 2009 Topped by the Finding of Ardi

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According to Science journal, a prestigious magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science with over 10 million readers, the most important breakthrough in 2009 was the discovery of Ardi - a short, seven stone, 4-foot tall creature that resembled an ape. Researchers claim that Ardi lived 4.4 million years ago and just like humans walked on two legs.
Topping the list of 10 most important landmarks on 2009, the finding of Ardi was followed by the repair of Hubble Space Telescope, as well as the latest developments in gene therapy and the identification of pulsar gamma ray emissions in outer space.
The skeleton of the short female creature was unearthed in Ethiopia. Researchers consider that Ardi inhabited African forests and today she is considered to be the oldest representative of the human family tree discovered so far. It is worth mentioning that the discovery of Ardi was reported in October, shedding light on the times when people starting leaving the trees.
It is possible that the skeleton could fill in the gaps on the evolution of apes and their transformation into humans. The finding has already overturned an earlier theory that humans evolved from chimps, offering evidence that the evolution of both, humans and chimps, took place in the same time and that both evolved from an even older common ancestor. Ardi does not really represent the missing link - researchers described the creature as its "cousin," reports The Telegraph.
The name Ardi is a shortened version of Ardipithecus ramidus, which translates as "root of the ground ape". The Science journal says that the discovery: "changed the way we think about early human evolution".