The species designation of Australopithecus bahrelghazali is a new one, which has little support
at present among most researchers. This is due to the small sample size, its recent designation, and
the affinity of the specimen to afarensis material. However, it differs in several important
aspects from afarensis (the geography being a major component in and of itself), and thus
may be a new species, or at least an outgroup relative to the bulk of the afarensis samples.
The material designated as A. bahrelghazali was discovered by Michel Brunet et al. in the ancient riverbed of Bahr el Ghazal in Chad, 2,500 kilometers west of the Rift Valley. This was the furthest west australopithecine material had been found in Africa. The type specimen is a mandible retaining seven teeth (KT12/H1), which has been dated by associated fauna to between 3.0 and 3.5 myr. The features of the mandible that differentiate it from most of the afarensis material include:
However, in other features, KT12/H1 closely resembles some Kanapoi (i.e., KP 29286) and Laetoli (i.e., LH 3) specimens in size and proportions. The bahrelghazali specimen resembles this material in the P3s being bicuspid and the canines being strongly incisiform.
The designation of a new species is always controversial, and thus many researchers see this material as simply a regional variant of afarensis. Whether it is or not will require the unearthing and publication of many more remains from the area, and preferably remains from areas gepgraphically intermediate to the West Africa and East Africa materials.
This bibliography contains the sources of the information cited above, as well as any sources that
could provide any other information on the subject. If you know of any other sources that are pertinent
to A. bahrelghazali, please e-mail me the citation in the format used below, and I will add it
to the list. Any problems with information I presented above can be sent to me
here. I don't want to provide disinformation, and any corrections are gladly accepted (with
proper documentation of what is wrong and why, with sources). Thanks!
Brunet, M., A, Beauvilain, Y. Coppens, E. Heintz, A.H.E. Moutaye, and D. Pilbeam. 1995. "The first australopithecine
2,500 kilometres west of the Rift Valley (Chad)." In Nature, vol. 378, pp. 273-275.
Brunet, M., A. Beauvilain, Y. Coppens, E. Heintz, A.H.E. Moutaye, and D. Pilbeam. 1996. "Australopithecus
bahrelghazali, une nouvelle espece d'Hominide ancien de la region de Koro Toro (Tchad)." In
Comptes Rendus des seances de l'Academie des Sciences, vol. 322, pp. 907-913.
Brunet, M., A. Beauvilain, D. Geraads, F. Guy, M. Kasser, H.T. Mackaye, L.M. MacLatchy, G. Mouchelin,
J. Sudre, and P. Vignaud. 1997. "Tchad: Un nouveau site à Hominidés Pliocène." In
Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences de Paris, vol. 324, no. 4, pp. 341-345.
Charpentier, V. 1996. "Les premiers hominidés de Koro Toro (Tchad). Naissance d'une nouvelle
espèce: Australopithecus bahrelghazali." In Les Nouvelles de l'Archéologia, vol.
64, pp. 31-32.
Coquerel, C. 1996. "Abel, le père d'une nouvelle espèce d'australopithèque." In
Archéologia, vol. 6, pp. 325.
Delson, E. 2000. "Australopithecus bahrelghazali." In
Encyclopedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory,
ed. by. E. Delson, I. Tattersall, J.A. Van Couvering, and A.S. Brooks, pp. 124.
New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.
Fleagle, J.G. 1999. Primate Adaptation and Evolution. San Diego: Academic Press.
Jelínek, J. 1996. "Australopithecus bahrelghazali west of the East African Rift." In
Anthropologie, vo. 34, no. 3, pp. 351.
Johanson, D., and B. Edgar. 1996.
From Lucy to Language. New York: Simon and Schuster Editions.
Leakey, M.G., and A. Walker. 1997. "Early hominid fossils from Africa." In Scientific American,
vol. 276, no. 6, pp. 74-79.
Wolpoff, M. 1999.
Paleoanthropology. second edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Wood, B.A., and A.S. Brooks. 1999. "We are what we ate." In Nature, vol. 400, pp. 219-220.