Vicenteticus Padillicarpeus

While you and I spend our time wondering when the Phillies bullpen will next self destruct or why there aren't as many green M&Ms as there are brown, or how long it will take Glenn Beck to realize we're laughing at him, not with him, there are some people in the world (scientists and such as) who pass the time by making ground breaking discoveries, actually furthering the intellect of the human mind.

Move over Lucy.  Make way for Ardi.

That's right.  Australopithecus afarensis, an extinct hominid (most commonly known as Lucy), who was once thought to be our oldest common ancestor, now must take a backseat to the most recently proclaimed elder of bipedalism: Ardipithecus (or Ardi for short).

Like it or not, this is a big deal because Ardi is a million years older than Lucy!  Consider her the cougar of the archaeological bar scene.  And with her discovery, the entire evolutionary map of modern day humans and just exactly where we came from, how we evolved, what we once were, has been totally rewritten.

It is no longer safe to say we share a common ancestor with chimpanzees.  More likely than not, we came from Ardi and whoever (or whatever) came before her.  Her construction is rare, odd, striking: a bipedal creature with an opposable big toe; an animal that walks upright on land but acts as a quadruped in its arboreal environment, Ardi is the corner border in a 5 gazillion trillion piece puzzle that is the evolutionary road to modern day humans.

We're starting to know where we came from.

Yet the only plausible explanation science can come up with for where the ugly flop-sweat of a man known as Vicente Padilla came from is this thing from the Clash of the Titans:

Yep.  We've come a long way... just not long enough.

Hate me 'cuz I don't pull punches, just don't hate me 'cuz I'm right.

Peace

Jeff


**Special thanks to Jason Russell for the pic and assist. You can follow him on Twitter at @JasonrussellUT