2024-08-29 19:44:59
DISTRIBUTION – This 7 million year old fossil has been at the heart of the debate since it was discovered in 2001. In particular, the questions surrounding its bipedalism.
Discovered in Chad, in the Sahel, in 2001, the Toumaï man (Sahelanthropus tchadensis) lived some 7 million years ago. Although we usually consider him as our oldest known ancestor, the debate continues. Scientists have been struggling for more than twenty years through publications to find out whether it was bipedal or not.
Which is important to know whether or not to place in our family tree. In 2022, a study published in the journal Nature hopes to close the debate. But the new work, published in the journal Journal of Human Evolution, come today to answer it. According to the authors, the current data do not allow us to determine that Sahelanthropus. And, if Toumaï can be representative of the group of human ancestors, he can easily be the ancestor of chimpanzees and (or) gorillas.
One of the main problems on the subject is…
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