A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 418; no. 6894; pp. 145 - 151
• Main Authors: Brunet, Michel, Guy, Franck, Pilbeam, David, Mackaye, Hassane Taisso, Likius, Andossa, Ahounta, Djimdoumalbaye, Beauvilain, Alain, Blondel, Cécile, Bocherens, Hervé, Boisserie, Jean-Renaud, De Bonis, Louis, Coppens, Yves, Dejax, Jean, Denys, Christiane, Duringer, Philippe, Eisenmann, Véra, Fanone, Gongdibé, Fronty, Pierre, Geraads, Denis, Lehmann, Thomas, Lihoreau, Fabrice, Louchart, Antoine, Mahamat, Adoum, Merceron, Gildas, Mouchelin, Guy, Otero, Olga, Campomanes, Pablo Pelaez, De Leon, Marcia Ponce, Rage, Jean-Claude, Sapanet, Michel, Schuster, Mathieu, Sudre, Jean, Tassy, Pascal, Valentin, Xavier, Vignaud, Patrick, Viriot, Laurent, Zazzo, Antoine, Zollikofer, Christoph
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing 11.07.2002; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Animal biology; Animals; Archaeology; Archaeology and Prehistory; Biodiversity; Biodiversity and Ecology; Biological Evolution; Chad; Discovery and exploration; Earth Sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Environmental Sciences; Evolution; Exact sciences and technology; Fauna; Fossil hominids; Fossils; History, Ancient; Hominidae - anatomy & histology; Hominidae - classification; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Jaw - anatomy & histology; Life Sciences; Male; Miocene; Paleontology; Pan troglodytes - anatomy & histology; Populations and Evolution; Rift valleys; Sciences of the Universe; Skull - anatomy & histology; Species Specificity; Systematics, Phylogenetics and taxonomy; Time Factors; Tooth - anatomy & histology; Vertebrate paleontology; Vertebrate Zoology; Chad; Central Africa; West Africa; Neogene; Chordata; upper Tertiary; morphometry; Eutheria; Primates; Theria; teeth; Cenozoic; Tetrapoda; Hominidae; biochronology; skulls; morphology; Tertiary; Africa; faunal list; mandibles; Vertebrata; Mammalia; discoveries; upper Miocene; new taxa; Miocene; Phanerozoic; australopithecus-afarensis; hadar; skull; lukeino
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/nature00879

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.