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Palaeoanthropology

Hominid revelations from Chad

Nature volume 418, pages 133–135 (2002)Cite this article

The story of human origins in Africa takes a twist with the description of a 6–7-million-year-old cranium from Chad. The discovery hints at the likely diversity of early hominids.

A single fossil can fundamentally change the way we reconstruct the tree of life. More than 75 years ago, Raymond Dart's description1 of the Taung skull from southern Africa wrought such a transformation with regard to human evolution. Dart provided hard evidence to support Darwin's prediction that the roots of human evolutionary history run deepest in Africa.

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Figure 1
Figure 2: The known fossil record of hominids, including S. tchadensis, also showing ourselves (top left) and the chimpanzee (top right).

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  1. the Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, 2110 G Street NW, Washington DC, 20052, USA

    Bernard Wood

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Wood, B. Hominid revelations from Chad. Nature 418, 133–135 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/418133a

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