Missing Link Between Humans and Chimpanzees ­Ethiopian Forest Bipeds 5.8 Million Years Ago?

July 21, 2001  Alayla, Ethiopia - A graduate student named Yohannes Haile-Selassie studying paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley, found bones on December 16, 1997 at a site 140 miles northeast of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which might be the missing link in evolving primates that went on to become humans. This creature, Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba, might have been the first primate to walk upright and the oldest human ancestor who lived in Ethiopian forests, not grassy plains, as far back as 5.8 million years ago. That's a million and a half years earlier than any other previous discovery and challenges the long held theory that primates stood up when they moved from trees to grassy plains.