Toumai: The Oldest Living Ancestor
The oldest human ancestor recorded to date, better known as Toumai, is seven million years old and has just "crash-landed" in the world of the living. The fossil is a mostly complete cranium with a brain comparable in size to that of a chimpanzee. While some scientists suggest that it may be an early gorilla, it shares characteristics with other hominids known to be bipedal and a distant relation.
The oldest human ancestor recorded to date, better known as Toumai, is seven million years old and has just "crash-landed" in the world of the living. The fossil is a mostly complete cranium with a brain comparable in size to that of a chimpanzee. While some scientists suggest that it may be an early gorilla, it shares characteristics with other hominids known to be bipedal and a distant relation.
Related Titles
Related Articles
View All
After 3.2 Million Years, 'Lucy' Has Her 50th Anniversary
Fifty years ago, paleontologists discovered the 3.2 million-year-old skeleton of a diminutive ancestor of modern humans who towers over our understanding of human origins. They…
Old Bones, New Stories: How Toumai, Ardi, Lucy & UR 501 Changed Our View of Human Evolution
Toumai, Ardi, and Lucy are ancient fossils that have changed our understanding of humanity’s origins, challenging early perspectives on how primates might have evolved into humans…
Ancient Tech: The Amazing Inventions of Hero of Alexandria
Our great age of technology and scientific advancement is hardly the first. In ancient Alexandria, one great mind of that era, Hero, is responsible for several amazing mechanical…
The Long Strange Story of Search: From Ancient Scrolls to Digital Books
Libraries have been around for more than 2000 years. And so has the problem of organizing and searching written knowledge. While Google’s search is impressive, it owes much to the…
Goddesses of the Ancient World: Legends of Powerful Religious Deities
From Sumer to Egypt to India, the world’s most ancient civilizations often worshiped powerful female goddesses and religious leaders – but even they had to fight for equality.