New hippotragini (Bovidae, Mammalia) from the Late Miocene of Toros-Menalla (Chad)

International audienceUntil now, the pre-Pleistocene record of the bovid tribe Hippotragini was rather poor. We describe here two new taxa from the late Miocene of Toros-Menalla in northern Chad, which yielded the earliest known hominid, Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Tchadotragus sudrei n.gen. n.sp. is known by complete skulls and numerous horn-cores. It has typical hippotragine features such as long slender, curved horn-cores, weak cranial flexure, large frontal sinus, and hippotragine-like dentition, and is here taken as a basal member of the tribe, branching before the divergence between Oryx-Praedamalis and Hippotragus s.l. Saheloryx solidus n.gen. n.sp. is less well-known; it differs mainly by the lack of sinus in the frontal and horn-cores, shorter horn-cores, and rounded brain-case, but it shares with Tchadotragus a large number of features that prompt us to classify it also at the base of the hippotragine tree, perhaps as the sister-taxon of Tchadotragus. No other African taxon looks like Saheloryx, and the only one similar to Tchadotragus is from Sahabi, Libya. The abundance of hippotragines sharply distinguishes Toros-Menalla from the East African late Miocene bovid faunas

New Material of the Earliest Hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad

Anthropolog

Macrovertebrate Paleontology and the Pliocene Habitat of Ardipithecus ramidus

International audienceA diverse assemblage of large mammals is spatially and stratigraphically associated with Ardipithecus ramidus at Aramis. The most common species are tragelaphine antelope and colobine monkeys. Analyses of their postcranial remains situate them in a closed habitat. Assessment of dental mesowear, microwear, and stable isotopes from these and a wider range of abundant associated larger mammals indicates that the local habitat at Aramis was predominantly woodland. The Ar. ramidus enamel isotope values indicate a minimal C4 vegetation component in its diet (plants using the C4 photosynthetic pathway), which is consistent with predominantly forest/woodland feeding. Although the Early Pliocene Afar included a range of environments, and the local environment at Aramis and its vicinity ranged from forests to wooded grasslands, the integration of available physical and biological evidence establishes Ar. ramidus as a denizen of the closed habitats along this continuum

Les grands ongulés du mio-pliocène du Tchad (rhinocerotidae, giraffidae, camelidae) (systématique, implications paléobiogéographiques et paléoenvironnementales)

POITIERS-BU Sciences (861942102) / SudocSudocFranceF

A new Semlikiichthys fish (Teleostei, Perciformes) from the upper Miocene of Chad : fossil record and Palaeobiogeographical implications

International audienc

Figure 1 in A new polypterid fish: Polypterus faraou sp. nov. (Cladistia, Polypteridae) from the Late Miocene, Toros-Menalla, Chad

Figure 1. Photograph of specimen TM90-01-39, holotype of Polypterus faraou sp. nov., in A, dorsal, B, left lateral, and C, ventral views.Published as part of <i>Otero, Olga, Likius, Andossa, Vignaud, Patrick & Brunet, Michel, 2006, A new polypterid fish: Polypterus faraou sp. nov. (Cladistia, Polypteridae) from the Late Miocene, Toros-Menalla, Chad, pp. 227-237 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 146 (2)</i> on page 229, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2006.00201.x, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/10114658">http://zenodo.org/record/10114658</a&gt

A new swan (Aves: Anatidae) in Africa, from the latest Miocene of Chad and Libya

International audienc

A window into the early evolutionary history of Cercopithecidae: Late Miocene evidence from Chad, Central Africa

International audienceCentral Africa is known as a major center of diversification for extant Old World Monkeys (OWM) and yet has a poorly documented fossil record of monkeys. Here we report a new colobine monkey (Cercopithecoides bruneti sp. nov.) from the Central African hominin-bearing fossiliferous area of Toros-Menalla, Chad at ca. 7 Ma. In addition to filling a gap in the spatial and temporal record of early OWM evolutionary history, we assess the ecomorphological diversity of early OWM by providing evidence on the onset of a folivorous diet and a partial reacquisition of terrestrial locomotor habits among Miocene colobines. We also support the phylogenetic affinities of the genus Cercopithecoides among the stem group of the extant African colobine monkeys