Journal ArticleDOI
The first australopithecine 2,500 kilometres west of the Rift Valley (Chad)
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
This new find from Chad documents the presence of an early hominid a considerable distance, 2,500 km, west of the Rift Valley, which is most similar in morphology to Australopithecus afarensis.Abstract:
THE first sites with Pliocene and Pleistocene mammals west of the Rift Valley in Central Africa in northern Chad were reported in 1959 (ref. 1), and documented the presence of mixed savannah and woodland habitats. Further sites2 and a probable Homo erectus cranio-facial fragment3 were subsequently discovered. In 1993 a survey of Pliocene and Pleistocene formations in the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Province of Chad (B.E.T.) led to the discovery of 17 new sites in the region of Bahr el Ghazal (classical Arabic for River of the Gazelles) near Koro Toro. One site, KT12 (15°58'10" N, 18°52'46" E) yielded an australopithecine mandible associated with a fauna biochronologically estimated to be 3.0-3.5 Myr old. Australopithecine species described since 1925 are known from southern Africa and from sites spread along the eastern Rift Valley from Tanzania to Ethiopia (Fig. 1). This new find from Chad, which is most similar in morphology to Australopithecus afarensis4, documents the presence of an early hominid a considerable distance, 2,500 km, west of the Rift Valley.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa
Michel Brunet,Franck Guy,Franck Guy,David Pilbeam,Hassane Taïsso Mackaye,Andossa Likius,Andossa Likius,Djimdoumalbaye Ahounta,Alain Beauvilain,Cécile Blondel,Hervé Bocherens,Jean-Renaud Boisserie,Louis de Bonis,Yves Coppens,Jean Dejax,Christiane Denys,Philippe Duringer,Véra Eisenmann,Gongdibé Fanone,Pierre Fronty,Denis Geraads,Thomas Lehmann,Fabrice Lihoreau,Antoine Louchart,Adoum Mahamat,Gildas Merceron,Guy Mouchelin,Olga Otero,Pablo Pelaez Campomanes,Marcia S. Ponce de León,Jean-Claude Rage,Michel Sapanet,Mathieu Schuster,Jean Sudre,Pascal Tassy,Xavier Valentin,Patrick Vignaud,Laurent Viriot,Antoine Zazzo,Christoph P. E. Zollikofer +39 more
TL;DR: The discovery of six hominid specimens from Chad, central Africa, 2,500 km from the East African Rift Valley, suggest that the earliest members of the hominids 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.
Journal ArticleDOI
Geology and palaeontology of the Upper Miocene Toros-Menalla hominid locality, Chad
Patrick Vignaud,Philippe Duringer,Hassane Taïsso Mackaye,Andossa Likius,Andossa Likius,Cécile Blondel,Jean-Renaud Boisserie,Louis de Bonis,Véra Eisenmann,Marie-Esther Etienne,Denis Geraads,Franck Guy,Franck Guy,Thomas Lehmann,Fabrice Lihoreau,Nieves López-Martínez,Cécile Mourer-Chauviré,Olga Otero,Jean-Claude Rage,Mathieu Schuster,Laurent Viriot,Antoine Zazzo,Michel Brunet +22 more
TL;DR: The fauna from Toros-Menalla site 266 suggests that S. tchadensis lived close to a lake, but not far from a sandy desert, perhaps the oldest record of desert conditions in the Neogene of northern central Africa.
Journal ArticleDOI
An Asian perspective on early human dispersal from Africa
Robin Dennell,Wil Roebroeks +1 more
TL;DR: It is shown here that it is time to develop alternatives to one of palaeoanthropology's most basic paradigms: ‘Out of Africa 1’.
Journal ArticleDOI
New hominin genus from eastern Africa shows diverse middle Pliocene lineages.
Meave G. Leakey,Fred Spoor,Francis H. Brown,Patrick N. Gathogo,Christopher Kiarie,Louise N. Leakey,Ian McDougall +6 more
TL;DR: New fossils discovered west of Lake Turkana, Kenya, which differ markedly from those of contemporary A. afarensis point to an early diet-driven adaptive radiation, provide new insight on the association of hominin craniodental features, and have implications for the understanding of Plio–Pleistocene hom inin phylogeny.
Journal ArticleDOI
Flaked stones and old bones: Biological and cultural evolution at the dawn of technology
TL;DR: The appearance of Oldowan sites ca.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Australopithecus ramidus, a new species of early hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia
TL;DR: The antiquity and primitive morphology of A. ramidus suggests that it represents a long-sought potential root species for the Hominidae.
Journal ArticleDOI
Kin selection, social structure, gene flow, and the evolution of chimpanzees
TL;DR: Sequence variation patterns at two mitochondrial loci indicate historically high long-distance gene flow and clarify the relationships among three allopatric subspecies and imply that P. t.
Book
The Cambridge encyclopedia of human evolution
TL;DR: The evolutionary future of humankind is examined through the lens of primates, human populations, past and present, and genetic clues of relatedness.
BookDOI
Species, Species Concepts, and Primate Evolution
TL;DR: The fossil record shows clear trends inSpeciation in Living Hominoid Primates and Geographic Variation in Primates, and Species Recognition in the Fossil Record is concerned.
Book ChapterDOI
Species, Subspecies, and Baboon Systematics
TL;DR: Baboon diversity is used to explore some aspects of species definition and diagnosis, without attempting a comprehensive revision of the group or an exhaustive exploration of the species concept.
Related Papers (5)
A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa
Michel Brunet,Franck Guy,Franck Guy,David Pilbeam,Hassane Taïsso Mackaye,Andossa Likius,Andossa Likius,Djimdoumalbaye Ahounta,Alain Beauvilain,Cécile Blondel,Hervé Bocherens,Jean-Renaud Boisserie,Louis de Bonis,Yves Coppens,Jean Dejax,Christiane Denys,Philippe Duringer,Véra Eisenmann,Gongdibé Fanone,Pierre Fronty,Denis Geraads,Thomas Lehmann,Fabrice Lihoreau,Antoine Louchart,Adoum Mahamat,Gildas Merceron,Guy Mouchelin,Olga Otero,Pablo Pelaez Campomanes,Marcia S. Ponce de León,Jean-Claude Rage,Michel Sapanet,Mathieu Schuster,Jean Sudre,Pascal Tassy,Xavier Valentin,Patrick Vignaud,Laurent Viriot,Antoine Zazzo,Christoph P. E. Zollikofer +39 more
Australopithecus ramidus, a new species of early hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia
New four-million-year-old hominid species from Kanapoi and Allia Bay, Kenya
Geology and palaeontology of the Upper Miocene Toros-Menalla hominid locality, Chad
Patrick Vignaud,Philippe Duringer,Hassane Taïsso Mackaye,Andossa Likius,Andossa Likius,Cécile Blondel,Jean-Renaud Boisserie,Louis de Bonis,Véra Eisenmann,Marie-Esther Etienne,Denis Geraads,Franck Guy,Franck Guy,Thomas Lehmann,Fabrice Lihoreau,Nieves López-Martínez,Cécile Mourer-Chauviré,Olga Otero,Jean-Claude Rage,Mathieu Schuster,Laurent Viriot,Antoine Zazzo,Michel Brunet +22 more