700 Million Years Old New Hominid’s Fossil

A fossil of a hominid (in the photo) was discovered, which is estimated about 7 million years old and the earliest ancestor of the modern human being.

The Nature, an English science magazine, reported, on July 11, 2002, that a research team excavated, from last year to the early this year, an almost intact human skull and a lower jaw with teeth in the Djurab Desert of northern Chad in Africa. The team was made up of scholars from 10 countries and led by Michel Brunet a professor of anthropologist at Université de Poitiers of France

According to the team, this fossil was named Toumai meaning in the local language “hope of life.” This fossil traces its origin up to almost 7 million years ago, which disputes the current theory that the human being was derived from the apes between 5 million and 7 million years ago.

The Nature reported that discovering of this fossil paves the way for finding clues to understanding the beginning of the human race, which was believed to have started at around 500 million years ago.

The researchers explained that the fossil has many features defining the modern humans and showing similarities between the ape and the human race. For example, a small ape-size braincase is similar to the current ape; on the other hand, linked to the human being by its characteristics such as the teeth and the skull that is protruded around the eyes.

Daniel Riverman, professor at Harvard evaluated, “Impacts from discovering of Toumai are equivalent to those of an atomic bomb in anthropology.”

Jei-Gyoon Park phark@donga.com