The Jawbone of Australopithecus bahrelghazali of KT13

Mahamat Kasser presenting at the place of discovery, KT13, the jawbone of an Australopithecus bahrelghazali
(photograph Alain Beauvilain).

On 16 January 1996, Mahamat Kasser, an engineer at the Direction of Geological and Mining Research(DRGM) picked up on the surface of the sandstone layer on the site of KT13 a fragment of a left jawbone Australopithecus, cataloged KT13-96-H1. In 1997 with the publication of an article (Tchad : un nouveau site à Hominidés Pliocène. Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Sciences,1997, vol. 324, pp. 341-345), he is called Australopithecus sp. indet.

He is described as Australopithecus bahrelghazali in 2012 in an article on diet of these australopithecines (Isotopic evidence for an early shift to C4 resources by Pliocene hominins in Chad, Proceeding pf the National Academy of Science (PNAS), December 11, 2012, vol. 109, n° 50, 20369-20372 and in the Supporting Information section).