Scholars Scratch Heads Over Skull Find Claims

Is it the skull of an ancient ancestor of modern humans, or does it belong to an ape that lived 7 million years ago? That depends on whom you ask. The skull unearthed in the desert of Chad was hailed as arguably the most important discovery in living memory when it was revealed and made world headlines in July.

Michel Brunet, of the University of Poitiers, and the team that reported the find in the journal Nature to much acclaim dubbed it “Toumai,” the name given to children in Chad born close to the dry season. Its unusual mixture of primitive and humanlike features prompted scientists to believe it was the earliest member of the human family found so far and a historic discovery that would shed light on human evolution.

But other French scientists quickly criticized the claim. Anthropologist Milford Wolpoff and colleagues at the University of Michigan joined the doubters this week, arguing in Thursday’s edition of Nature that it was the fossil of an ape.

“It is not a human or a direct ancestor of humans,” Wolpoff said in an interview.