Overview
- Published in Science Advances, the New York University–led study reexamines ulna and femur fragments from the Djurab Desert in Chad.
- The team reports a femoral tubercle interpreted as the attachment for the iliofemoral ligament, a structure associated with standing and walking upright.
- Analyses also note femoral antetorsion, hominin-like modeling of the gluteal muscle complex, and limb proportions closer to Australopithecus than to modern apes.
- Lead author Scott Williams describes Sahelanthropus as a bipedal ape with a chimpanzee-sized brain that likely still spent considerable time in trees.
- Some specialists remain unconvinced due to fragmentary preservation, and researchers expect renewed fieldwork in Chad to seek more definitive fossils.