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Abel (KT-12/H1)[1] is the name given to the only specimen ever discovered ofAustralopithecus bahrelghazali. Abel was found in January 1995 inChad in theKanem Region by thepaleontologistMichel Brunet,[2] who named the fossil "Abel" in memory of his close friend Abel Brillanceau, who had died ofmalaria in 1989.
Of Abel remains only part of a jaw, which explains the little information discernable concerning its way of life.
The few teeth confirm it to be of the genusAustralopithecus: it has a secondpremolar with a broad and molarized crown, not dissimilar to theLucy fossil, and as such to theAustralopithecus afarensis.[citation needed]
