Najstariji fosil coveka - 7 miliona godina?!

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Creature belonged to human branch existed 7 million years

09:58 2005-04-07
New fossil finds and a computer skull reconstruction bolster the case that an ancient creature that grabbed headlines in 2002 really is the earliest known ancestor of modern humans, researchers say.
In that year, scientists announced finding jaw fragments, some isolated teeth and a skull of a creature nicknamed "Toumai" in Chad. At some 6 million to 7 million years old, the fossils came from around the time of a major split in the evolutionary tree, with one branch leading to humans and the other branch leading to chimps.
The researchers argued that the creature, which they dubbed Sahelanthropus tchadensis, belongs on the human branch and thus is the oldest known hominid. Others disagreed.
In any case, the skull provided a puzzling combination of human and chimp traits and at that time raised what one expert called "a wheelbarrow full of questions" about evolution, reports the Post Gazette.
New evidence shows a 7 million year-old skull unearthed in Chad is the earliest member of the human family, scientists said Wednesday.
Controversy has surrounded the skull, dubbed "Toumai," since its discovery was first reported in 2002 by a team led by Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers in France.
It was hailed as arguably the most important fossil discovery in living memory because it was thought to be an ancient ancestor of modern humans, although some scientists argued it was a fossil of a female ape.
But newly found remains of tooth and jaw fragments and a computer reconstruction of the skull, reported in the science journal Nature, suggest Toumai was more human than ape, publishes Reuters.
NR

Dalje

Dopuna: 07 Apr 2005 11:15

Evo jos malo linkova:

AP

AFP

Reuters

BBC

Dopuna: 11 Apr 2005 10:29

Izgleda da je fosil ipak ljudski predak:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=20.....n_ancestor