A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa.
The search for the earliest fossil evidence of the human lineage has been concentrated in East Africa. Here we report the discovery of six hominid specimens from Chad, central Africa, 2,500 km from the East African Rift Valley. The fossils include a nearly complete cranium and fragmentary lower jaws. The associated fauna suggest the fossils are between 6 and 7 million years old. The fossils display a unique mosaic of primitive and derived characters, and constitute a new genus and species of hominid. The distance from the Rift Valley, and the great antiquity of the fossils, suggest that the earliest members of the hominid clade were more widely distributed than has been thought, and that the divergence between the human and chimpanzee lineages was earlier than indicated by most molecular studies.
Faculté des Sciences et CNRS UMR 6046, Université de Poitiers, 40 Avenue du Recteur Pineau, 86022 Poitiers Cedex, France. michel.brunet@univ-poitiers.fr
Michel
M
Brunet
Franck
F
Guy
David
D
Pilbeam
Hassane Taisso
HT
Mackaye
Andossa
A
Likius
Djimdoumalbaye
D
Ahounta
Alain
A
Beauvilain
Cécile
C
Blondel
Hervé
H
Bocherens
Jean-Renaud
JR
Boisserie
Louis
L
De Bonis
Yves
Y
Coppens
Jean
J
Dejax
Christiane
C
Denys
Philippe
P
Duringer
Véra
V
Eisenmann
Gongdibé
G
Fanone
Pierre
P
Fronty
Denis
D
Geraads
Thomas
T
Lehmann
Fabrice
F
Lihoreau
Antoine
A
Louchart
Adoum
A
Mahamat
Gildas
G
Merceron
Guy
G
Mouchelin
Olga
O
Otero
Pablo
P
Pelaez Campomanes
Marcia
M
Ponce De Leon
Jean-Claude
JC
Rage
Michel
M
Sapanet
Mathieu
M
Schuster
Jean
J
Sudre
Pascal
P
Tassy
Xavier
X
Valentin
Patrick
P
Vignaud
Laurent
L
Viriot
Antoine
A
Zazzo
Christoph
C
Zollikofer
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002596:Chad; D005580:Fossils; D049690:History, Ancient; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification*; D006801:Humans; D007568:Jaw / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D008297:Male; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D013045:Species Specificity; D013997:Time Factors; D014070:Tooth / Q000033:anatomy & histology