Sakhelantrop

Main article: History of mankind. Main dates

Skull TM 266-01-060-1 "Tumai." Author photo: Oryctes

The key issue in the study of sahelanthropus remains its evolutionary position. A phylogenetic analysis conducted by the discoverers showed that the sahelanthrope belongs to the human pedigree and is the most primitive representative of hominini. However, the fragmentation of specimens and the shortage of taxa for comparison leave the possibility that anatomical features that allow us to talk about the sachelanthrope belonging to hominini are the result of convergent evolution. In this case, the sachelanthrope does not belong to hominini and is a representative of the unknown parallel line of evolution of humanoid monkeys. If the sahelanthrope is not hominini, then any reconstruction of the human pedigree based on the study of its remains will be obviously erroneous.

The reconstruction of anthropogenesis, according to which sahelanthropus does not belong to the human pedigree, is defended by the discoverers of the orrorin. However, they tend to consider the sahelanthrope a representative not of the previously unknown branch of hominid evolution, but associate it with kinship with gorillas. In their opinion, Tumai was a female proto-gorilla. The morphology of the femur may call into question Tumai's bipedalism (bipedalism). Anthropologist M. H. Wolpoff of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and his colleagues claim that the Tumai skull is more similar to the skull of a prehistoric gorilla, the angle of inclination of the plane on the nape of Tumai, where neck muscles are usually attached to the skull, indicates that it can only be a four-legged animal, and such monkeys could be in the self.

Unexpected for researchers was the location of the discovery of the supposed most primitive and most ancient representative of the human genealogy. Sahelanthropus was found at a distance of 2500 km from the East African fault, with which the initial stages of the evolution of the human branch of hominini are associated. This contradicts the hypothesis that the split of the evolutionary branches of man and other hominids provoked climate change in East Africa, caused by the isolation of the region.

Determining the place of the sahelanthrope in evolution is complicated by the lack of reliable dating of its specimens. In the primary description, researchers based on biostratigraphy gave an experimental estimate of 6-7 million years. Later, the rocks in which the remains were discovered were dated using radiometric methods. However, it is not known whether fossils formed in these rocks or originate from other deposits. Thus, the exact age of the sahelanthrope at the moment cannot be established.