Lake Chad
National Museum — Toumaï
N'Djamena holds the skull of Toumaï, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, seven million years old: one of the oldest known members of the human lineage.
- Period
- 7,000,000 BCE
- Coordinates
- 12.1067° N, 15.0444° E
- Cultural heritage
- Lake Chad
History
In July 2001, in the Djurab desert of north-western Chad, the Franco-Chadian Palaeoanthropological Mission uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved skull. It was dated to around seven million years. They named it Toumaï — 'hope of life' in Gorane, the name given to children born before the dry season.
Sahelanthropus tchadensis redrew the map of human origins. Until then the oldest fossils came from the Rift Valley in East Africa. Toumaï, found 2,500 km further west, showed that the cradle of humanity was far wider than supposed. The position of its foramen magnum suggests an upright posture, which would make it among the oldest known bipeds — a point still debated.
The skull is held in Chad. The National Museum in N'Djamena displays a cast of it along with archaeological and ethnographic collections covering the whole country.
Galerie
National Museum — Toumaï en images
Sites & heritage
