New evidence shows a 7 million year-old skull unearthed in Chad is the earliest member of the human family, scientists said. Controversy has surrounded the skull, dubbed "Toumai", since its discovery was first reported in 2002 by a team led by Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers in France. It was hailed as arguably the most important fossil discovery in living memory because it was thought to be an ancient ancestor of modern humans, although some scientists argued it was a fossil of a female ape.