A Researcher Hid This Fossil For Decades. Here’s Why

In 2002, a research team discovered one of the oldest human ancestors ever, called Sahelanthropus. For over twenty years, most people thought that all they found was a skull. But a few researchers, sworn to secrecy by their peers and the norms of the field, knew that there were more. Here's the story of academic subterfuge, investigative reporting, and some full-on norm-shattering that ended up showing the world the femur of Toumaï. Hosted by: Reid Reimers (he/him) ---------- Support us for $8/month on Patreon and keep SciShow going!   / scishow   Or support us directly: https://complexly.com/support Join our SciShow email list to get the latest news and highlights: https://mailchi.mp/scishow/email ---------- Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever: Jaap Westera, Alex Hackman, Blood Doctor Kelly, Toyas Dhake, Matt Curls, Piya Shedden, Jason A Saslow, Kevin Knupp, J.V. Rosenbalm, Garrett Galloway, Steve Gums, David Johnston, Bethany Matthews, Chris Curry, Chris Peters, Chris Mackey, Jeremy Mattern, Adam Brainard, Kevin Bealer, Alan Wong, Joseph Ruf, Lyndsay Brown, Cye Stoner, Jp Lynch, Eric Jensen, Friso ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? SciShow Tangents Podcast: https://scishow-tangents.simplecast.com/ TikTok:   / scishow   Instagram:   / thescishow   Facebook:   / scishow   Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/scishow.bsky... #SciShow #science #education #learning #complexly ---------- Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/...