Discover: Hadar, Ethiopia
The science of paleoanthropology begins with discoveries in the field. And it is exciting to find a real fossil! The famous fossil "Lucy" was discovered in 1974 by Donald Johanson in the dusty hills of Hadar, Ethiopia. Scientists continue to return to the same area to look for more fossils of our ancient ancestor, Australopithecus afarensis, along with the fossil skeletons of animals that lived around the same time—3.2 million years ago. Follow along as a group of scientists and students trek out to the field in search of fossils!
Image credits Benjamin Reed
This far away from any city, only satellite phones work. A student is using the phone connected to a solar charging pad.
In the evening, a local Afar cook, hired for the field season, will provide a good meal for the team. The team relies on local Afar people to help with setting up camp, security, cooking, and field work. A few individuals or several generations of families have been part of the field team for many years.
As the day winds down, the team hangs out at the tents and prepares for the next day's work. Six weeks pass by very quickly, and they will be packing up and returning to Addis Ababa with the fossils they have found in this field season. Fossils of any human ancestor, like Lucy's species, will have to go to the National Museum of Ethiopia for cataloguing and analysis, but some animal fossils can be shipped to the U.S. for analysis.
The entire field team—scientists, students, and local Afar partners—pose for a photo before the end of the season. Many of the graduate students from this 2009 group have graduated with their PhDs and are on to careers in universities, medical schools, and business.
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