Oldest Hominid-new entry from Chad

From: Glenn Morton (glenn.morton@btinternet.com)
Date: Thu Jul 11 2002 - 00:45:36 EDT

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    An article in this week's Nature announces the discovery of a 6-7 million
    year old hominid. The abstract says:
    "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."MICHEL
    BRUNET*, et al, "A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central
    Africa," Nature 418, 145 - 151 (2002)

    glenn

    see http://www.glenn.morton.btinternet.co.uk/dmd.htm
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