0000000000955409
AUTHOR
Hassane Taïsso Mackaye
Toros-Menalla (Chad, 7 Ma), the earliest hominin-bearing area: how many mammal paleocommunities?
12 pages; International audience; The fossiliferous area of Toros-Menalla (TM) (Djurab Desert, northern Chad) has yielded one of the richest African mammal faunas of the late Miocene. It is also the place where the earliest known hominin, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, was found. Although more than 300 localities are recorded in that area, previous paleoecological studies focused only on the largest and richest one. The integration of the material from other TM localities, and thus of a significant number of mammal taxa, is crucial to improve the corresponding paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Before such inferences can be drawn, it is necessary to test for the ecological integrity of these m…
A new Lagomorph from the late Miocene of Chad (central Africa)
A new species of the genus Serengetilagus, here named S. tchadensis n. sp., is described from Toros Menalla deposits, Late Miocene of Djurab Erg (North Chad, central Africa). It shows primitive features, such as a simple archaeolagine-type p3, with only two main external folds, and upper cheek teeth strongly widened with wear. Its size and skeletal features resemble S. praecapensis from the Middle Pliocene of Laetoli (Tanzania). They differ in several cranial and dental features (choanae width, zygoma, orbits, basicranial-basifacial angle, lack of hypoflexus in P2, short and asymmetric hypoflexus in P3-M2, lack of lingual folds in p3, etc). Individual variations in S. tchadensis n. sp. appr…
Late Miocene to Early Pliocene Chadian vertebrate faunas: palaeoenvironmental and palaeobiogeographical implications
5 pages; International audience