Is the man from Toumai really our oldest ancestor? New analyses cast doubt
Decryption – This 7-million-year-old fossil has been the subject of controversy since its discovery in 2001. In particular, questions surrounding its bipedal movement.
Toumai Man was discovered in Chad in the Sahel region in 2001.Sahelanthropus tchadensis) It lived about 7 million years ago. Although it is often considered our oldest known ancestor, controversy rages. Scientists have struggled for more than twenty years through publications to determine whether it was bipedal or not.
Which is key to whether or not it should be included in our family tree. In 2022, a study published in Nature hopes to end the debate. But the new work published in the journal Journal of Human Evolution, Come today to answer it. According to the authors, the currently available data simply do not allow us to conclude that SahelanthropusIf Toumai could be a representative of an ancestral group of humans, he could easily be an ancestor of chimpanzees and (or) gorillas.
One of the main difficulties in this subject is…
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