Oldest Hominid Skull Found

Scientists unveiled on Wednesday the skull of what they called the earliest member of the human family so far discovered, dating back six or seven million years to a period in evolution about which virtually nothing is known. The skull was discovered last year by an international team of palaeoanthropologists working in Chad, Central Africa. It has been nicknamed "Toumai," the name in Chad usually given to children born close to the dry season. Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University, one of several scientists to have seen the remains, said in the Nature journal which featured the discovery that they would have the impact of a "small nuclear bomb" among students of human evolution. "Toumai is arguably the most important fossil discovery in living memory, rivaling the discovery of the first ape-man 77 years ago -- the find which effectively founded the modern science of palaeoanthropology," added Henry Gee, Natures palaeontology editor.
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