News Anthropology

7-million-year-old limb fossils may be from the earliest known hominid

Misconduct allegations over an earlier report on one of the bones hang over the findings

3-D models of an upper leg bone and two forearm bones, each shown from two angles

An analysis of 3-D models of approximately 7-million-year-old fossils — an upper leg bone seen from two angles, far left, and two forearm bones, each also shown from two angles — concludes that they come from the earliest known hominid. Opposing charges of scientific misconduct surround this study and an earlier investigation of the leg fossil.

© F. Guy/PALEVOPRIM/Univ. of Poitiers, CNRS

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

In 2001, researchers unearthed a partial fossil leg bone and two forearm bones in the central African nation of Chad.