That's how long it took for an international team of scientists to excavate and analyze the fossilized skeleton of a 4.4 million year old human ancestor, Ardipithecus ramidus, which was discovered in Ethiopia.

VOA: standard.2009.12.24

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated that fishing operations kill more than one hundred million sharks every year.

VOA: special.2009.06.16

Without new treatments,the W.H.O.says, the number of new cancer patients could reach twenty-seven million a year by two thousand thirty.

VOA: special.2009.03.02

It represents more than a million students every year who entered ninth grade but do not complete twelfth grade.

VOA: special.2009.09.10

The group says the low cost vaccines could save as many as seven million lives by the year twenty thirty.

VOA: special.2010.03.29

More than one-fourth of the four million newborns who die each year around the world were born too early.

VOA: special.2009.10.19

In the United States alone, the number of infections in hospitals is estimated at close to two million each year.

VOA: special.2010.04.21

Without new treatments, the WHO said, the number of new cancer patients could increase to 27 million a year by 2030.

VOA: special.2009.01.13

Michael O'Donnell says the F.A.A.is spending between seven hundred fifty thousand and one million dollars a year on radar research.

VOA: special.2009.04.01

Critics of limiting hours say such a requirement could cost American hospitals about one billion seven hundred million dollars a year.

VOA: special.2010.07.13

The goal is to enrich the experience of the more than two million people who visit the Capitol every year.

VOA: special.2010.01.27

The administration is also asking that Congress approve an additional two hundred seventy-eight million dollars for next year.

VOA: special.2009.06.30

They say funding dropped from about nine hundred thirty million dollars in two thousand seven to eight hundred seventy million last year.

VOA: special.2009.07.29

The World Health Organization says tobacco kills nearly five and a half million people a year -- another victim every six seconds.

VOA: special.2010.05.31

Asthma affects more than seven million children each year and is considered one of the leading childhood illnesses.

VOA: special.2009.07.28

They say the proposed changes could cost American hospitals about one billion six hundred million dollars a year.

VOA: special.2009.06.02

Online advertising sales in China are estimated to bring Google only a few hundred million dollars a year.

VOA: special.2010.01.15

GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer have agreed to provide thirty million doses of the vaccine each year for ten years.

VOA: special.2010.03.29

They say thirty million tropical fish are disappearing every year because of a growing interest in tropical fish.

VOA: special.2010.08.10