Among biggest paleontology issues of 2018: Is Toumaï an ape or a human ancestor?

Seymouria/Sanjay Acharya (CC BY-SA 4.0)

It’s getting testy, says a vertebrate paleontologist:

In January Roberto Macchiarelli, a professor of human paleontology, accused his colleague Michel Brunet of totally misrepresenting an important piece of evidence in the story of human evolution. The evidence in question is a femur – a thigh bone found in northern Chad in 2001. Macchiarelli believes that the femur belonged to Toumaï (Sahelanthropus tchadensis), a species which his opponent argues is the earliest known example of a human ancestor, dating back around 7 million years.

But Macchiarelli insists the femur belonged to a quadrupedal ape, not a bipedal hominin. Julian Benoit, “Five reasons why 2018 was a big year for palaeontology” at THe Conversation

If Toumaï is a human ancestor, then human beings originated in western, not eastern Africa, the thinking goes. Some of the artwork might have to change.