A 2002 discovery of fossilized skull in the African country Chad is now believed to be the oldest remains of human relative ever found.
The skull, named “Toumai,” is thought to be 7 million years old, making it the earliest member of the human ancestors. The skull, which was discovered in Chad by Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers in France, has been, according to Reuters, hailed has one of the most important fossil discovery ever. Although, when first discovered, some argued the skull was that of a female ape.
Reuters goes on to say:
But newly found remains of tooth and jaw fragments and a computer reconstruction of the skull, reported in the science journal Nature, suggest Toumai was more human than ape.
“Toumai is not a chimp. Toumai is not a gorilla,” Brunet told Reuters. “It is perfectly clear Toumai is a hominid.”
The first reliable records of hominids, members of the human family distinct from chimpanzees and other apes, suggest they did not appear until about 5 million years ago.
Brunet said Toumai probably lived not long after the two lineages split.
Brunet also believes Toumai was capable of walking upright, which is an important difference between humans and apes.
“The computer reconstruction shows the original anatomy of this specimen. In the anatomy you can read that this creature was a hominid but it was probably also bipedal,” said Marcia Ponce de Leon, of the University of Zurich-Irchel, in Switzerland who worked on the research.
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