Seven million year old chad skull intrigues anthropologists according to reports in Nature Science Update 11 Jul 2002 and Nature, vol 418, p145, 11 Jul 2002.
Michael Brunet of the University of Poitiers, France has found a skull with a chimp sized braincase, brow ridges like a gorilla, but smaller canines and thicker tooth enamel than apes. It also has muscle attachment sites on the back of the skull that indicate a more upright posture than living apes. Based on the fossils found in the same rock layer, Brunet and his colleagues claim it is 6-7 million years old. Anthropologist David Lieberman of Harvard University initially thought it was a chimp, but because of the teeth and muscle attachment sites, now claims it is a “hominid” (evolution-speak for “human ancestor”).
Bernard Wood of George Washington University commented “My guess is that it’s neither a chimp nor a human ancestor. It’s a creature that was living at the same time.”
The skull has been named Toumai.
Editorial Comment: If we go by the evidence, Bernard Wood is probably closest to the truth. It was an animal that co-existed with apes and humans but has since become extinct.
When we find bones of creatures that look like apes but are not exactly the same as living apes, the most logical conclusion is that it is an extinct ape. Since no pelvis, limbs, feet or hands have been found, any statement it walked upright is pure conjecture. The hidden assumption used in all these ape-man claims is that similarities prove relationship, therefore differences are largely ignored. In the end, the differences will catch them out. The Biblical picture is that apes were created with the other land animals and humans on the sixth day of creation and have co-existed with human beings ever since.