Geology and palaeontology of the Upper Miocene Toros-Menalla hominid locality, Chad.
All six known specimens of the early hominid Sahelanthropus tchadensis come from Toros-Menalla site 266 (TM 266), a single locality in the Djurab Desert, northern Chad, central Africa. Here we present a preliminary analysis of the palaeontological and palaeoecological context of these finds. The rich fauna from TM 266 includes a significant aquatic component such as fish, crocodiles and amphibious mammals, alongside animals associated with gallery forest and savannah, such as primates, rodents, elephants, equids and bovids. The fauna suggests a biochronological age between 6 and 7 million years. Taken together with the sedimentological evidence, the fauna suggests that S. tchadensis lived close to a lake, but not far from a sandy desert, perhaps the oldest record of desert conditions in the Neogene of northern central Africa.
Faculté des Sciences et Centre National de Recherche Scientifique UMR 6046, Université de Poitiers, 40 Avenue du Recteur Pineau, 86022 Poitiers Cedex, France. patrick.vignaud@univ-poitiers.fr
Patrick
P
Vignaud
Philippe
P
Duringer
Hassane Taïsso
HT
Mackaye
Andossa
A
Likius
Cécile
C
Blondel
Jean-Renaud
JR
Boisserie
Louis
L
De Bonis
Véra
V
Eisenmann
Marie-Esther
ME
Etienne
Denis
D
Geraads
Franck
F
Guy
Thomas
T
Lehmann
Fabrice
F
Lihoreau
Nieves
N
Lopez-Martinez
Cécile
C
Mourer-Chauviré
Olga
O
Otero
Jean-Claude
JC
Rage
Mathieu
M
Schuster
Laurent
L
Viriot
Antoine
A
Zazzo
Michel
M
Brunet
D000818:Animals; D002596:Chad; D017753:Ecosystem; D005580:Fossils; D005618:Fresh Water; D005843:Geography; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000032:analysis; D015186:Hominidae; D006801:Humans; D013997:Time Factors