Any updates on the Chad fossil?

[unworthyone]

Is this even a hominid?

And if its not that most likely would be because its too complex to be hominid.

Funny how things work out like that.

 

"This skull is too complex to be a hominid and seven million years old."

"You are right. It looks like a whole new species."

So is it an ancestor or not?

I'm guessing it will be established as a whole new species, but....

That means if a fossil doesn't fit the timeline then you can remove it. Is that even good science?

[quote of Bernard wood]


"It was the conventional assumption that the human-chimp common ancestor, and the earliest members of the chimp lineage … would have been adapted for life in the trees, with the trunk held either horizontal or upright and with the forelimbs adapted for knuckle-walking on large branches or on the ground. This would have been combined with projecting faces that accommodated elongated jaws bearing relatively small chewing teeth and, in males, large upper canine teeth ..."


"If we accept these as sufficient evidence to classify [Toumai] as a hominid at the base, or stem, of the modern human [lineage] then it plays havoc with the tidy model of human origins," Wood said. "Quite simply, a hominid of this age should only just be beginning to show signs of being a hominid. It certainly should not have the face of a hominid less than one-third of its geological age."

 

[Jerry Smith]

Worthy,

There is still a lot of debate on Tounami. Hopefully further excavation of the area will shed more light.

 

[Jerry Smith]

Oh, and to answer your question: no, you can't throw it out because it doesn't fit your current model of human origins. At the same time, you can't throw out your current model of human origins without first being relatively certain that the thing was a hominid near the stem line. So there will be debate, and that debate will continue until it can be finally settled by additional evidence. That is the way of things...

 

[unworthyone]

How will they determine the answer?

 

[Jerry Smith]

It probably will take more data. If none is forthcoming the debate will most likely go on until the principles are dead and Tounami is forgotten. Chances are decent that more data will be dug up.