Ardipithecus ramidus is the earliest hominid found so far and was discovered in Aramis, in the Middle Awash region of Ethiopia in 1994 by Tim White and his two colleagues, Gen Suwa and Berhane Asfaw. Ardipithecus ramidus translates literally as "ground man-root" and is thought to be 4.4 to 4.5 million years old. Originally it was named as a member of the Australopithecine family, but it was later decided that this species differed too much from other australopithecines.

However, even though the possibility has been raised that ramidus might even be an ape, it is fairly sure that it is a hominid, as the very earliest hominines were expected to be apelike (or even possibly chimplike) in many ways such as dentition anyway. It has thus been decided that Ardipithecus ramidus was not a direct ancestor to later hominids.