A group of researchers from France, Italy and the United States proved that the earliest human ancestor of the species Sahelanthropus tchadensis was not a hominid and is not the oldest representative of our species. The study was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.
The authors of the work claim that the mysterious creature was not upright – it is not a hominid, but the ancestor of modern apes.
Scientists examined the fossilized thigh bone of the creature, and came to the conclusion that it moved on four limbs. This is what gorillas and other species of great apes do today. In particular, the size of the teeth, according to the researchers, coincides with the size of those of small female monkeys.
Thus, scientists have come to the conclusion that Sahelanthropus tchadensis is not the most ancient ancestor of modern humans.
Recall that the fossilized remains of this humanoid creature were discovered in 2001 in the Jurab desert in Chad. Then the discovery was made by the research group CNAR. After the species unknown to science was named Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Then the team of researchers said that the creature found was an upright hominid. Hence, this is one of the ancient human ancestors.
However, scientists questioned this conclusion, since the evidence was based only on the study of teeth and marks on the back of the skull. In addition, the work was published in a journal that was not peer-reviewed. Also, access to the found remains was not provided.
That being said, the new study is not based on the fossils that the CNAR team studied. The femur they are studying was found near the site where the remains of Sahelanthropus tchadensis were found in 2001. Since the sites of the finds are very close to each other, and the age of the fossils is the same, the scientists considered that the remains of the same long-dead representative of the species fell into their hands.