Who is the ancestor of mankind?

10 On the evening of July 6, in the conference hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Chad, the French-Chadian archaeological team held a press conference, announcing to more than 1000 participants that the skull fossil found in the Djulab desert in Chad is the earliest human fossil ever discovered. The next day, the authoritative British magazine Nature published the report of the archaeological team.

This fossil named "Tumai" has inspired the world archaeological community. Lieberman, a professor at Harvard University, believes that the influence of "Tumai" on human evolution research is tantamount to "a small atomic bomb". Woody, a professor at the University of Washington, believes that this is the most significant achievement since 1924 first discovered human fossils.

Found "Tumai" in Chad

The French-Chadian joint archaeological team, led by Michel Berune, a professor of paleontology at Pouati-Ayre University, France, has been conducting archaeology in the Chadian desert since 1993. On the evening of July, 20065438, four members of the archaeological team braved the high temperature of more than 50 degrees Celsius to run in the desert for three days, and then set up tents under a sand dune to rest. /kloc-in the early morning of 0/9, the two of them walked out of the tent, enjoyed the moon over the sand dunes and climbed to the other side of the hill. They suddenly saw a lot of black "stones" in the desert, often led by the wind: the wind blows the sand dunes, sometimes it lifts what you are looking for from the ground, and sometimes it covers them. When two archaeologists picked up these "stones", they couldn't help cheering. This is a fossil that they miss very much!

The archaeological team brought many fossils back to N 'Djamena's office and identified them one by one. They found a skull fossil, three teeth and two jawbones. Professor Berune took the fossil copies to research institutions in the United States, Kenya, Ethiopia and other countries and compared them with the fossils there. After several months of research, it was confirmed that it was a human being 7 million years ago, named "Sahelian Chad" and nicknamed "Tumai". In the Goran language of Chad, "Tumai" means "hope of life", which is the name given by the local people to children born before the arrival of the dry season.

Professor Berune introduced their research results, and said that although Tumai's skull is relatively small, only between 320 and 380 cubic centimeters, close to chimpanzees, it is still larger than the skull found in Africa in the last century; Its eyebrow arch is high, mandibular protrusion is not obvious, and its face is relatively flat, close to primitive people. In addition, Tumai's teeth are relatively small, and their shape and wear are similar to those of humans. The professor even guessed that the gender of "Tumai" was male.

Bellune speculated that 7 million years ago, "Tumai" lived on the edge of lakes and deserts in Chad, and there were a lot of animals in the lakes and lakes. 19 In July, in the same sand dune, the archaeological team also found about 10 kinds of fish fossils, as well as turtles, lizards, snakes and other fossils, which further provided evidence for the age of Tumai.

Broke the "hegemony of the East"

Many human fossils were found in Africa in the last century. /kloc-found the first ape-man fossil in south Africa in 0/924,/kloc-found the human skull fossil in south Africa in 0/9281700,000 years ago. 1974 and 1997, human fossils 3.2 million years ago and 4.4 million years ago were found in Ethiopia. 1999 and 2000, human fossils 3.5 million years ago and 6 million years ago were found in Kenya. Because of these great discoveries, Kenya and Ethiopia, located in the Grand Canyon of East Africa, have become the "cradles of mankind". 1982, Yves Coppen, a famous French paleontologist, put forward the theory of "oriental story", arguing that because of the change of environment, apes began to stand and walk away from trees, and apes first appeared there. It is in the east of the Grand Canyon that gorillas and apes parted ways and embarked on their own evolutionary paths.

1995, 3.5 million-year-old human fossils were discovered in Eber, Chad, in Burune. At that time, he was very excited and thought that the origin of human beings was not limited to the East. He led an archaeological team to search in the desert of Chad and finally found "Tumai". "Tumai" broke the "hegemony of the East" and expanded the understanding of early human progress from two aspects: time and place. It advanced the time of human origin by 6.5438+0 million years and moved to the west of the Grand Canyon by 2,500 kilometers. It is recognized by archaeology that apes got down from trees 6.5438+million years ago, and evolved into primitive people 5 million years ago. The appearance of "Tumai" 7 million years ago raised a series of new questions to the archaeological community: What position does "Tumai" occupy in the human genealogy tree? Is it the last ancestor of ape-man and ape, or the ancestor of human beings after man and ape broke up? The history of anthropology may be rewritten because of Tumai.

After the news of "Tumai" was announced, Kopang was interviewed by reporters many times. He praised "Tumai", a small skull with a history of 7 million years, which is really cute. He tends to accept Berune's view that "Tumai" is a human being, not an ape. At present, there are different views on "Tumai" in archaeological circles: one thinks that "Tumai" is an ancient ape, the other thinks that it is an anthropoid ape, and the third thinks that it is an ape on the eve of the differentiation of apes and human evolution. At present, there is no evidence that Tumai can stand and walk, and archaeologists will continue to study it in depth. There is public opinion that once the "origin" of "Tumai" is determined, Chad will become the "cradle of mankind". But Bayrou says their discovery is to expand the cradle. Archaeologically named Chad, Ethiopia and Kenya are all in the same cradle and written into the history of human dawn.

The Chadian government attaches great importance to this discovery, and President Deby, who is attending the African Union Summit in South Africa, returned home early to attend this extraordinary meeting. At the meeting, Deby excitedly announced: "Toumai is the ancestor of Chad and the ancestor of mankind!" Chad is one of the least developed countries identified by the United Nations. For such a country, the discovery of "Tumai" is undoubtedly a stimulant to invigorate the national spirit and enhance national pride, which will make its national roots deeper and stronger.