Evolution / It is possible that during the time of "Thomai", whose remains were discovered in Chad, man split from the ape
Thomai - a person or a monkey
From the Guardian
Disagreements around bones found in the desert in Africa: are they of a monkey, or of a human prototype/
When he woke up on his last day on earth, Tomai wondered how he would get food for that day. It is doubtful that he could have imagined that seven million years later hominids would look at the remains of his body and discuss them passionately, while making personal accusations and intrigues.
"Thomai" - that's what the researchers called the remains of what may be the earliest hominid (creature with a human structure) discovered so far. The remains of Thomai - a skull, two jaw bones and three teeth - were discovered by a delegation led by Professor Michel Bruna in the desert in Chad. Bruna claimed that according to the hole in the base of the skull, Thomai went for two.
However, only three months after Thomai's discovery was published in Nature magazine, fierce attacks on the discovery are now being published in the same magazine. Researchers from different institutions disagree on the statement that Thomai is the earliest hominid.
A group of researchers, whose people are from France and the USA, reviewed the findings of the expedition, and thoroughly rejected Bruna's claims. Brigitte Snow and Martin Pickford from France, and John Hawkes from the USA, claimed, among other things, that the structure of the teeth of Thomai is close to that of the primate monkeys at least as close as it is to the structure of the hominid teeth. According to Hawks, Borna's evidence, that Thomai is a hominid, is weak, and that the chances that he went for two are very low. The summary of their arguments shows that on the scale between the primate apes and the first hominids, Thomai is closer to the apes. "Thomai was a monkey", some declare emphatically, infuriating Professor Bruna.
Bruna claims that Snow and Pickford have an ulterior motive - about two years ago they found their own candidate for the title of oldest hominid in Kenya. However, he also admits that Hawks has no ulterior motive as far as he knows.
"Thomai", 7 million years old, may be the ancestor of man
by Tamara Traubman
11/7/2002
In a discovery that some scientists defined as one of the most important discoveries in paleontology (the study of fossils), a team of researchers will report today on finding fossilized remains of the earliest member of the human family. The remains of the hominid (nicknames for all creatures belonging to the human family tree) were discovered in northern Chad in Africa. The hominid, which appears to be a combination of man and monkey, lived about seven million years ago - about three million years before the earliest hominid discovered so far.
The fossils - a skull, two jaw bones and three teeth - were discovered at the bottom of an ancient lake. The researchers call the new hominid "Tomai", a name that is often given to babies born in the region near the dry season, and means "hope for life". "We searched for him for such a long time, a large part of my life was focused on this, and many emotions are involved here", explained the head of the research delegation, Prof. Michel Bruna. He and his team, which includes researchers from France and Chad, will publish reports today describing their findings in the scientific journal "Nature".
Prof. Bruna is still in the excavations in Chad and was not available for telephone interviews. In the e-mails he sent, he stated that "Thomai may be the ancestor of the entire lineage of the human race." According to him, Thomai lived very close to the time when the human lineage split from that of the chimpanzees, an event that eventually led to the development of humans.
"The find will have the effect of a small atomic bomb," said Daniel Lieberman, professor of biology and biological anthropology and one of the few researchers who had the privilege of closely examining the discovered skull. According to him, Thomai, whose age is estimated at six to seven million years, lived in a critical period of human evolution, about which very little is known.
"10 million years ago Africa was full of monkeys; A little more than five million years ago, the first definite evidence of hominids begins to appear," says Dr. Henry G., the paleontology editor of the journal." Nature However, he adds, "There is very little evidence for what happened in that time interval, at the time of the split between man and ape. In fact, all the fossils that have been discovered so far from that time can be packed into one shoe box."
According to the hole at the base of the skull, to which the spine connects, it can be concluded with the highest certainty that Thomai used to walk on two, like humans. However, since no limbs or body parts other than the skull were discovered, this cannot be determined with absolute certainty.
Thomai's skull appears to be a mixture of primitive human features and features similar to great apes. His brain, for example, is similar in size to that of chimpanzees living today. However, Thomai also has unique characteristics, for example the enamel that covers the teeth and the ridge of the eyebrows, which do not exist in any monkey - but only in humans.
However, some experts believe that Thumai, however ancient, is not the direct ancestor of mankind. It is possible, says Prof. Bernard Wood, an expert from the University of Washington, who wrote an article accompanying the publication of the study, that Thomai is a "dead branch" in the family tree of humanity, a branch that became extinct and left no descendants.
The discovery sparks a renewed discussion about the origin of the hominids, says Dr. Arala Hubers from the Hebrew University. In 1925 the first hominid was discovered, a species called Australopithecus africanus. His remains were uncovered in excavations in South Africa. After that, even more ancient hominids were discovered in East Africa, and with the exception of one hominid about three million years old that Bruna found in Chad, all the rest were discovered in these areas. These findings led researchers to the conclusion that the origin of the hominids is in the East African savannah. However, say Dr. Hubers and other researchers, "the discoveries provide convincing evidence that hominids in Africa had a wider distribution" than they thought.
The geological evidence collected in the excavations suggests that Thomai lived close to water. "In the past," Bruna pointed out, "the whole area was a huge lake. Today the area is a desert, but thanks to strong and frequent storm winds, surfaces containing fossils are exposed from time to time."
