Prompted by a paper last week in Nature, fossil experts are wrapped up in a heated debate about a 7 million-year-old ape-like creature fondly nicknamed Toumaï. Some believe that he could walk on two feet and is the oldest member of the human race; others claim that Toumaï really walked on four feet and is part of the extinct species Sahelanthropus tchadensis, and that scientists of the first camp are cherry-picking data. Beliefs that the creature walked upright stem from analysis of its skull shape, which supposedly expresses emotion—more than a chimpanzee-related creature would have had. Analysis of leg bones suggest that it walked on all fours. “The dispute is rancorous even for paleontology, a field noted for the bitterness of its controversies over the interpretation of ancient skulls and bones,” The Guardian said.
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