 Brigitte Senut and Martin Pickford, the discoverers of "Orrorin tugenensis", suggested that the features of "S. tchadensis" are consistent with a female proto-gorilla.Even if this claim is upheld the find would lose none of its significance, because at present, very few chimpanzee or gorilla ancestors have been found anywhere in Africa.Thus if "S. tchadensis" is an ancestral relative of the chimpanzees or gorillas, then it represents the earliest known member of "their" lineage.