There are many different hominin traits that I will discuss. A trait that can inform us about modern human biology is their teeth as it has very human-like features. The teeth are actually moving from a more ape-like form to a more human-like form. These are from the later hominins. Another trait is their legs are also used as bipedal. This is when one uses its two feet to walk just like how we as humans do. Although they use bipedal they are actually not as good at walking for so long the way that humans are because their legs are smaller. This is why they use their long arms to climb and complete a lot of their daily tasks. Researchers now believe that Ardipithecus is closer to the evolutionary split of chimps and humans than ever seen before. Ardipithecus have canines but they are different than ours as we use ours as incisors. They may use theirs for fighting which is why there is a little bigger than ours. Although there’s are larger than ours they are actually smaller than chimpanzees, which is why they are in between humans chimps. Our big toe is aligned with our other four toes but Ardipithecus toes are off to the side and grasp in the same way that our hand does or that a modern chimpanzee foot does too. Although Ardipithecus is in our family tree it isn’t a direct ancestor. There are enough similarities to say that they at least are related to our direct ancestors. Fossilized skeletal remains of early human ancestors can help anthropologists reconstruct and learn from the past. They may do this by providing us with some snapshots of how things like bipedalism have changed so much over time. Fossils have helped us see what changes have taken place at what particular time periods. This helps with more and more science being done in the form of excavations of different fossils which allows us to paint a more informative better picture of this. As discussed in the lecture during this time we actually have a lot of fossils and it has given us is a very good model of the trends that occurred and continue to occur over time. It also helps us have a better idea as to which changes took place first, and when these changes actually took place, and what types of environments lead to these changes. For example the three fossils from Africa that showed us the basic form of initial transition. It helped us learn how these initially adapted to their environment. Studying fossils helps us learn and understand different species and the changes that have occurred over time. This helps us develop a better understanding of the world we live in. It also helps us understand more about the extinct organisms and how they worked. It gives us clues to the history of life. It also helps us find the ages of rocks by looking at what fossils we find in them.