Toumai: Oldest ancestor? Image: MPFT
Posted on 07/10/2002 1:00:11 PM PDT by Kermit
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Wednesday, 10 July, 2002, 18:00 GMT 19:00 UK
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| By Ivan Noble BBC News Online science staff |
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 It's the most important find in living memory  |
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Henry Gee
Nature |
"I knew I would one day find it... I've been looking for 25 years," said Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers, France.
Scientists say it is the most important discovery in the search for the origins of humankind since the first Australopithecus "ape-man" remains were found in Africa in the 1920s.
The newly discovered skull finally puts to rest any idea that there might be a single "missing link" between humans and chimpanzees, they say.
Messy evolution
Analysis of the ancient find is not yet complete, but already it is clear that it has an apparently puzzling combination of modern and ancient features.
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"It shows us there wasn't a nice steady progression from ancient hominids to what we are today," he told BBC News Online.
"It's the most important find in living memory, the most important since the australopithecines in the 1920s.
"It's amazing to find such a wonderful skull that's so old," he said.
What is the skull's significance?
The skull is so old that it comes from a time when the creatures which were to become modern humans had not long diverged from the line that would become chimpanzees.
There were very few of these creatures around relative to the number of people in the world today, and only a tiny percentage of them were ever fossilised.
So despite all the false starts, failed experiments and ultimate winners produced by evolution, the evidence for what went on between 10 and five million years ago is very scarce.
Grandparent, great uncle, great aunt?
There will be plenty of debate about where the Chad skull fits into the incomplete and sketchy picture researchers have drawn for the origins of the human species.
 The hominid's jaw was found later
Image: MPFT |
Sahelanthropus tchadensis, as the find has been named, may turn out to be a direct human ancestor or it may prove to be a member of a side branch of our family tree.
The team which found the skull believes it is that of a male, but even that is not 100% clear.
"They've called it a male individual, based on the strong brow ridge, but it's equally possible it's a female," said Professor Stringer.
Future finds may make the whole picture of human evolution clearer.
"We've got to be ready for shocks and surprises to come," he said.
The Sahelanthropus has been nicknamed Toumai, a name often given to children born in the dry season in Chad.
Full details of the discovery appear in the journal Nature.
Must be one of Janet Reno's ancestors...
Question: How can this be 2002 and we still have adults who still don't know the answer to this question?
The bottom line is the scientists have no real proof, just evidence. The great thing is, we can each believe what we wish!
You have got to be kidding. Why are you so afraid that the overwhelming evidence supporting human evolution will rock your world? It's okay. We evolved. Fit your Good into it somehow.
There are distinct differences between skulls from apes and hominids. Presumably there are enough characteristics in this find to allow the scientists to distinguish its hominid "status". Otherwise this wouldn't be described in such glowing terms.
There never was a logical reason to think there was.
Thank your God for courageous geniuses like Newdow. Were human advancement left to people like you, we'd not yet have figured out what to do with caves.
Doesn't it seem that in seven million years we should have advanced further than we have.
Is this the proof you've been searching for? Does it explain the vast differences between man and the remainder of the planets life forms? Could those who accept the notion of a creator believe that an infinite God could not create a billion year old rock or a seven million year old skull?
Well since it wasn't left to us, then human advancement has been left to people like you. Pray tell good Doctor why the human psyche hasn't evolved one iota in all these years. Why haven't we conquered the 7 deadly sins? On the contrary, we seem to be regressing into barbarity. Anthropologists seem to be consumed with the understanding of the physical development of man, but are strangely silent when it comes to understanding the spiritual condition of mankind. Surely one cannot divide the two.
We're not going to fall for the excluded middle any longer. Weren't you all over in Afghanistan sowing Existentialism in Taliban fields? The French Intellectuals SWAT Team. How'd that work out? Those Alqaida finally shrug their shoulders and give up?
What's the problem? If the ape is suited for his environment, and if his environment doesn't change, the ape won't change either. Ditto for sharks. Ditto for allegators. There's no law that says every species must change into something else.
Well maybe I am making an assumption but I figured that the ape experienced the same environment changes as man did and I would have expected at least some changes over the same time period. I also thought that man and ape had about the same abilities at one time. When man changed so many times while the ape never changed I find that confusing.
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