Toumaï had been found with a femur, but this was stored with animal bones and shipped to the University of Poitiers in 2003, whereupon it was stumbled upon by graduate student Aude Bergeret the next year. She took the bone to the head of the department of geosciences, Roberto Macchiarelli, who considered it to be inconsistent with bipedalism contra what Brunet "et al." had earlier stated in their description analysing only the distorted skull. This was conspicuous because Brunet and his team had already explicitly stated Toumaï was associated with no limb bones, which could have proven or disproven their conclusions of locomotion. Because Brunet had declined to comment on the subject, Macchiarelli and Bergeret petitioned to present their preliminary findings during an annual conference organised by the Anthropological Society of Paris, which would be held at Poitiers that year. This was rejected as they had not formally published their findings yet. They were able to publish a full description in 2020, and concluded "Sahelanthropus" was not bipedal.