Toumai Skull: Possibly Our Oldest Relative
Written by Stephanie Ratcliffe

About a year ago, a nearly complete cranium was found "in the Toros-Menalla fossiliferous area of the Djurab Desert of northern Chad" (1). It was discovered by a team led by French paleoanthropologist Michel Brunet. This find could change the current theories about where hominids first started to develop. The majority of older finds were located in Eastern Africa, namely in Kenya and Ethiopia (where the previous "oldest" hominid fossils were discovered). The fossil has been identified as having more hominid characteristics than chimpanzee, and has been labeled under a new genus and species known as Sahelanthropus tchadensis. The genus has been named after the Sahel region of Africa, which is where the fossils were found.


Toumai cranium, click on the image for a larger picture (2).

The find has been named "Toumai" which comes from Goran (an African language) and means "hope of life." The skull dates somewhere between 6 and 7 million years old (3); which, if true, predates previous finds by at least a million years. The two other fossils which are among the oldest are a set of fossils from Kenya, and recently found fossils from Ethiopia (approx. 5.8 million years old) (4).


Jaw bones, click on the image for a larger picture (5).

In the description and discussion of the fossils were published recently in the 11 July 2002 issue of Nature Magazine. The cranium has been described as probably male, with generally smaller facial features and smaller teeth (main reasons why the team believe the skull to be mostly hominid), but the brain case has been described as "ape size" and is typically smaller than other hominid brain cases (6).





Sources
  1. A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa. Nature, 418, 145-151(2002).
  2. A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa. Nature, 418, 145-151(2002).
  3. A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa. Nature, 418, 145-151(2002).
  4. Scientists Mull Startling Skull. NEW YORK, July 10, 2002. CBSNews.com.
  5. A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa. Nature, 418, 145-151(2002).
  6. A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa. Nature, 418, 145-151(2002).



For other sources and links to information about the Toumai fossil remains, click on the sources link to your left and look under the sub-heading "Toumai Skull".