Djurab Desert

The Djurab Desert is a desert in northern Chad,[1][2] Central Africa.[3] Many fossils have been found in this desert, including a hominid that was nicknamed Toumai. Kossom Bougoudi and Toros-Menalla are some of the most bountiful fossil-bearing areas in the desert.[4]

History

Aeolian deflation in the northern subbasin formed the desert with an arid conditions.[5] Desert reached through Sahara and reduced Lake Chad.[5]

Discoveries

In this desert, the remains of Sahelanthropus tchadensis, an extinct homininae species, were founded by an English and French equip[6] in localities 247, 266 and 292 of the Toros Menalla Formation, at 250 meters about sea level.[2] These remains were nicknamed Toumaë, a Goran-language word which means "hope of life."[7] Toumaë or Toumai represents a hominid with the size of a chimpanzee which lived six or seven millions years ago.[8][9] Michel Brunet, from the University of Poitiers, with a dozen other researchers, excavated in the mid-1990s the Djurab Desert.[7] He and Ahounta Djimdoumalbaye studied it.[10]

Michel Brunet, since 1994, has explored Miocene and Pliocene deposits in the desert with the Mission Paléoanthropologique Franco-Tschadienne, which are located in a basin which includes Lake Chad.[5]

Patrick Vignaud applied plaster to a crocodile cranium in this desert.[10]

In the period of the Sahelanthropus tchadensis, desert would have long dry season, and fruits would have been able to grow at certain times of the year.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Gibbons, Ann (2006). "The Places: The Djurab Desert, Chad". The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors. Doubleday. p. 306. ISBN 9780385512268.
  2. 1 2 Sarmiento et al. 2007, p. 30.
  3. ↑ Henke & Tattersall 2007, p. 537.
  4. ↑ de Bonis, Louis; Peginé, Stéphane; Mackaye, Hassane Taisso; Likius, Andossa; Vignaud, Patrick; Brunet, Michel (December 2008). "The fossil vertebrate locality Kossom Bougoudi, Djurab desert, Chad: A window in the distribution of the carnivoran faunas at the Mio–Pliocene boundary in Africa". Comptes Rendus Palevol. 7 (8): 571–581. doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2008.10.004.
  5. 1 2 3 Henke & Tattersall 2007, p. 350.
  6. ↑ "Toumaï, l'aventure humaine". Le Figaro (in French). Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  7. 1 2 Parsell, D. L. (11 July 2011). "Skull Fossil Opens Window Into Early Period of Human Origins". National Geographic News. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  8. ↑ Miller, André (10 October 2002). "Toumai - of the Djurab desert of northern Chad". Université de Montréal. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  9. ↑ "'Old man of Chad' confirmed as first hominid". The Telegraph. 7 April 2005. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  10. 1 2 MPFT. "Dossier de Presse" (PDF). Centre national de la recherche scientifique. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  11. ↑ Sarmiento et al. 2007, p. 29.

Bibliography

  • Henke, Winfried; Tattersall, Ian (2007). Handbook of Paleoanthropology: Vol I:Principles, Methods and Approaches Vol II:Primate Evolution and Human Origins Vol III:Phylogeny of Hominids. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 2069. ISBN 9783540324744.
  • Sarmiento, Esteban E.; Sawyer, Gary J.; Milner, Richard; Deak, Viktor (2007). "We Were Not Alone". In Tattersall, Ian. The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-two Species of Extinct Humans. Yale University Press. p. 29. ISBN 9780300100471.


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