Genus: Sahelanthropus (Walking Upright)

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Speed: 1.00

Author note.

Explore voice = Exploratory style. Very punchy. Personal, and lively using “me,” “you,” “us,” and “I” freely.

I want you to feel me right there with you. We use “I” and “me” and “us” without apology. If the Explain voice is a bridge, the Explore voice is the hike we take across it. It is lively, reflective, and sometimes a bit raw. It is the sound of a shared exploration where I lead you by the hand, but we both discover the view at the same time.

This is where I get to think out loud. Not with definitions, we aren’t just looking at the facts; we are looking at how they feel and what they mean for our lives. I’m talking to you about what I’ve found and what I’m still figuring out. It is engaging because it is real, and it is reflective because it is honest.

The goal is real advice and enjoyable reading. I want to land on something you can actually use. It’s about being direct, being punchy, and making sure that by the time we reach the end of the page, we’ve both found something worth keeping.

And now the piece.

Genus: Sahelanthropus (Walking Upright)

7 Million BCE

Partial bipedal posture + visual reorientation

260,000 Generations Ago

CHLCA candidate: Often considered one of the earliest potential hominins, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, best known from the “Toumai” skull found in Chad, exhibits features that suggest bipedalism but remains debated due to limited fossil evidence. With two human anatomical traits, small canine teeth, and a spinal cord hole in the cranium further forward (on the underside of the cranium), it is possible that they are the fist of our ancestors to walk upright. If not, they likely had an intermediate stride.

Survival: From about 7 to 6 MYA in Central Africa (a densely wooded rain forest at the time)
Size: 4′ to 4’6″ (a little taller than modern chimpanzees)
Brain Size: around 320 to 380 cm³ (speculative)
Brain to Body EQ: Unknown, but like similar to chimpanzees at 2.2 to 2.5 (humans=7.4 to 7.8)

Primary Timeline…

Perhaps the first species below represents Sahelanthropus tchadensis:

That History Story,

was first published on TST 5 years ago.

The flashcard inspired by it is this.

All this is part of the broader TST project.

This structure allows essays to remain readable and reflective, while citations stay precise, visible, and accountable.

TouchstoneTruth is an experiment in whether ideas can remain alive without losing accountability.

The end!