The Djurab Desert (''Djourab'', ) is a

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

in northern

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...

. Part of the greater

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

desert, it makes up much of the area of Chad's

Borkou region The Borkou region () is a province of Chad which was created in 2008 from the Borkou department of the former Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region. Its capital is Faya-Largeau. Geography Borkou is located in the Sahara Desert, and contains parts o ...

. The

Koro Toro Koro Toro is a settlement in the southern Borkou Region of Chad. It hosts the Koro Toro Airport and a "notorious" maximum security desert prison used by the Chadian government to detain captured fighters of Boko Haram and Chadian rebel groups. Acco ...

settlement and maximum security prison is situated on the eastern boundary of the desert. The closest major settlements are Salal to the south and

Faya-Largeau Faya-Largeau (also known as Faya, or ) is the largest city in northern Chad and was the capital of the region of Bourkou-Ennedi-Tibesti. It is now in the Borkou Region, which was formed in 2008 from the Borkou Department of the former Bourkou-En ...

to the northeast. To the west is the

Ténéré The Ténéré (Tuareg languages, Tuareg: Tenere, literally: "desert") is a desert region in south central Sahara. It comprises a vast plain of sand stretching from northeastern Niger to western Chad, occupying an area of over . The Ténéré's b ...

desert (the

Erg of Bilma The erg is a unit of energy equal to 10−7joules (100 nJ). It is not an SI unit, instead originating from the centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS). Its name is derived from (), a Greek word meaning 'work' or 'task'. An erg is the ...

) of western Chad and

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

, to the north are the

Tibesti Mountains The Tibesti Mountains are a mountain range in the central Sahara, primarily located in the extreme north of Chad, with a small portion located in southern Libya. The highest peak in the range, Emi Koussi, lies to the south at a height of and i ...

of the central Sahara. Aeolian

deflation In economics, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0% and becomes negative. While inflation reduces the value of currency over time, deflation increases i ...

in the northern subbasin formed the desert with an arid conditions. Desert reached through

and reduced

Lake Chad Lake Chad (, Kanuri language, Kanuri: ''Sádǝ'', ) is an endorheic freshwater lake located at the junction of four countries: Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, in western and central Africa respectively, with a catchment area in excess of . ...

. Many

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s have been found in this desert, ''Kossom Bougoudi'' and ''Toros-Menalla'' being among the most bountiful fossil-bearing areas. A team led by

Michel Brunet Michel Brunet may refer to: * Michel Brunet (historian) (1917–1985), Canadian historian * Michel Brunet (paleontologist) Michel Brunet (born April 6, 1940) is a French paleontologist and a professor at the Collège de France between 2008 and 20 ...

, from the

University of Poitiers The University of Poitiers (UP; , ) is a public university located in Poitiers, France. It is a member of the Coimbra Group. It is multidisciplinary and contributes to making Poitiers the city with the highest student/inhabitant ratio in France ...

, excavated in the Djurab desert during the mid-1990s. In 2001, the type fossil of ''

Sahelanthropus tchadensis ''Sahelanthropus'' is an extinct genus of hominid dated to about during the Late Miocene. The type species, ''Sahelanthropus tchadensis'', was first announced in 2002, based mainly on a partial cranium, nicknamed ''Toumaï'', discovered in north ...

'', a hominid species of about 7 million years ago, was discovered at Toros-Menalla (, some north of Salal), at 250 meters above sea level. Michel Brunet, since 1994, has explored

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

and

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Lake Chad Lake Chad (, Kanuri language, Kanuri: ''Sádǝ'', ) is an endorheic freshwater lake located at the junction of four countries: Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, in western and central Africa respectively, with a catchment area in excess of . ...

. In the period of the ''Sahelanthropus tchadensis'', desert would have long dry season, and fruits would have been able to grow at certain times of the year.

References

Bibliography

* * Deserts of Africa Geography of Chad {{chad-geo-stub