Sahelanthropus

Uncommon card · No. 75630

Sahelanthropus is an extinct genus of hominid dated to about 7 million years ago during the Late Miocene. The type species, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, was first announced in 2002, based mainly on a partial cranium, nicknamed Toumaï, discovered in northern Chad. The definitive phylogenetic position of Sahelanthropus within the hominids is uncertain. It was initially described as a possible hominin ancestral to both humans and chimpanzees, but subsequent interpretations suggest that it could be an early member of the tribe Gorillini or a stem-hominid outside the hominins. The supposed bipedality based on the postcranial skeleton of Sahelanthropus has also been a subject of debate among paleoanthropologists.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0