Discovery to Unveil Evolution Doc at MIPCOM

SILVER SPRING: Discovering Ardi, a two-hour special exploring new findings about human evolution, will be launched to the international market by Discovery Enterprises International at MIPCOM, ahead of the U.S. television broadcast on October 11.

The special chronicles the discovery and significance of a 4.4 million-year-old female partial skeleton nicknamed “Ardi" in Ethiopia 17 years ago. The Discovery Channel doc focuses on the investigation of the Ardipithecus ramidus fossils leading up to the publication of the research in the Science journal this month. It is accompanied by an extensive website, www.discovery.com/ardi, as well as a one-hour special, Understanding Ardi, produced with CBS News and moderated by Paula Zahn, featuring some of the research team members. 

“In Discovering Ardi, we show viewers the scientific analysis undertaken by this international team of 47 scientists as they piece together the hominid bones and link the evidence of thousands of other animals and plant fossils," said John Ford, the president and general manager of Discovery Channel. "The science in Discovering Ardi is core to our mission and we have taken great care to tell the story of this amazing scientific find."

The doc is the result of a ten-year collaboration between the Middle Awash research project and Primary Pictures of Atlanta. Through permissions granted by the Ethiopian Government, initial filming took place in 1999 and was followed by three additional shoots in the desert research area and at the National Museum in Addis Ababa. Additional filming was done at The University of Tokyo laboratory of project scientist Dr. Gen Suwa and locations in the United States. In 2007, Primary Pictures reached an agreement for Discovery to have exclusive broadcast rights.