Sahelanthropus is the oldest known ancestor of humans (homo sapiens).
It is unclear if these species were the ancestors of both chimpanzees and humans, or of just humans (possibly chimps?). Only few fossils were found, of which a skull in bad shape was found, but the skull was complete. Upon examination of the foramen magnum in the primary study, the lead author speculated that the utilisation of a bipedal gait "would not be unreasonable" based on basicranial morphology similar to more recent hominids. it is most liekly this species went extinct about 7 million to 13 million years ago.
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A reconstruction of Sahelanthropus.