Abel (KT-12/H1) is the name given to the only specimen ever discovered of ''
Australopithecus bahrelghazali
''Australopithecus bahrelghazali'' is an extinct species of australopithecine discovered in 1995 at Koro Toro, Bahr el Gazel, Chad, existing around 3.5 million years ago in the Pliocene. It is the first and only australopithecine known from Ce ...
''. Abel was found in January 1995 in
Chad in the
Kanem Region
Kanem ( ar, كانم) is one of the 23 regions of Chad. It is named after the famous Kanem Empire, which was centred in this vicinity. The region's capital is Mao. It was created in 2002 from the former Prefecture of Kanem. In 2008, a porti ...
by the
paleontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
Michel Brunet,
[Brunet, M., Beauvilain, A., Coppens, Y., Heintz, É., Moutaye, A.H.E et Pilbeam, D. (1995) - "The first australopithecine 2,500 kilometres west of the Rift Valley (Chad)", ''Nature'', 378, pp. 273-275.] who named the fossil "Abel" in memory of his close friend Abel Brillanceau, who had died of
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
in 1989.
Of Abel remains only part of a jaw, which explains the little information discernable concerning its way of life.
The few teeth confirm it to be of the genus ''
Australopithecus
''Australopithecus'' (, ; ) is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genus ''Homo'' (which includes modern humans) emerged within ''Australopithecus'', as sister to e.g. ''Austral ...
'': it has a second
premolar with a broad and molarized crown, not dissimilar to the
Lucy
Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Lu ...
fossil, and as such to the ''
Australopithecus afarensis
''Australopithecus afarensis'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived from about 3.9–2.9 million years ago (mya) in the Pliocene of East Africa. The first fossils were discovered in the 1930s, but major fossil finds would not ...
''.
See also
*
List of human evolution fossils
The following tables give an overview of notable finds of hominin fossils and remains relating to human evolution, beginning with the formation of the tribe Hominini (the divergence of the human and chimpanzee lineages) in the late Miocene, roug ...
References
Australopithecus fossils
Prehistoric Chad
{{Chad-stub