Geology and palaeontology of the Upper Miocene Toros-Menalla hominid locality,Chad |
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Authors: | Vignaud Patrick Duringer Philippe Mackaye Hassane Taïsso Likius Andossa Blondel Cécile Boisserie Jean-Renaud De Bonis Louis Eisenmann Véra Etienne Marie-Esther Geraads Denis Guy Franck Lehmann Thomas Lihoreau Fabrice Lopez-Martinez Nieves Mourer-Chauviré Cécile Otero Olga Rage Jean-Claude Schuster Mathieu Viriot Laurent Zazzo Antoine Brunet Michel |
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Affiliation: | Faculté des Sciences et Centre National de Recherche Scientifique UMR 6046, Université de Poitiers, 40 Avenue du Recteur Pineau, 86022 Poitiers Cedex, France. patrick.vignaud@univ-poitiers.fr |
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Abstract: | All six known specimens of the early hominid Sahelanthropus tchadensis come from Toros-Menalla site 266 (TM 266), a single locality in the Djurab Desert, northern Chad, central Africa. Here we present a preliminary analysis of the palaeontological and palaeoecological context of these finds. The rich fauna from TM 266 includes a significant aquatic component such as fish, crocodiles and amphibious mammals, alongside animals associated with gallery forest and savannah, such as primates, rodents, elephants, equids and bovids. The fauna suggests a biochronological age between 6 and 7 million years. Taken together with the sedimentological evidence, the fauna 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. |
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