PARIS: A team of French paleontologists says that it’s discovered the world’s oldest hominid, man’s first ancestor who is estimated to be between six and seven million years old.

According to an article in ‘Nature’, Lucy and Abel, the two previous holders of the record, have now safely been outdistanced by Toumai, whose well-preserved skull was found a year ago in the Djurab desert of northern Chad.

Michel Brunet, the French paleontologist, says that “Toumai is undoubtedly the oldest ancestor of man.”

A discovery that came by pure chance, for the four-man team that came across the skull found the remains lying on the desert floor, uncovered evidently by a recent windstorm.

In all, they came across the Toumai skull, as well as the bones belonging to six hominids and several animals.

According to Henry Gee, the ‘Nature’ editorialist, Toumai is the first major discovery to be made since 1924, when the existence of Australopithecus Africanus, the monkey man, was first revealed.

One thing is certain, however: it is a major find as it demonstrates convincingly that the cradle of humanity was located not, as long thought, in East Africa, but further north and west, in the desertified northern reaches of Chad.

The legendary Lucy, one of the oldest primates to have been located in East Africa — specifically in Ethiopia in 1974 — has been dated at only 3.2 million years.

Brunet’s find became known as Abel’s mandible, and it was the first time in history that a pre-human fossil was discovered west of the Rift, the 8-million year old North-South geological fault that goes from Malawi to Ethiopia.