Seven million-year-old skull puzzles scientists

IN possibly the most startling fossil find in decades, scientists in central Africa have unearthed the oldest trace of a pre-human ancestor.

The remarkably intact skull, believed to be seven million-years-old, belonged to a previously unknown species that walked upright.

The thick-browed, flat-faced specimen was found in Chad, 1,500 miles west of earlier pre-human discoveries in east Africa.