Hadar, Ethiopia

Administrative Zone 1 (Afar Region), Ethiopia

The region's rocks consist mainly of mudstones, siltstones, fine-grained sandstones and volcanic tuffs. The region has been divided into four geologic members—Hadar Formation, Basal (∼3.8–3.42 Ma), Sidi Hakoma (∼3.42–3.26 Ma), Denen Dora (∼3.26–3.2 Ma) and Kada Hadar (<∼3.2 Ma)—with three tuffs (Sidi Hakoma Tuff [SHT], Triple Tuff [TT] and Kada Hadar Tuff [KHT]) separating the four members.

The Sidi Hakoma member tends towards high rainfall and low seasonality. The overlying Denan Dora Member was a grassland habitat. Finally, the Kada Hadar Member was an even more open and arid habitat, as seen in the high abundance of antilopines, which frequent these types of terrains.[4]

The first paleo-geological explorations of the Hadar area were conducted by Maurice Taieb. He found Hadar in December 1970 by following the Ledi River, which originates in the highlands north of Bati to empty into the Awash River. Taieb recovered several fossils in the area and led a party back to Hadar in May 1972. In October 1973, 16 individuals with the International Afar Research Expedition (IARE) arrived at Hadar and camped there for two months during which the first hominin fossil was found. (Taieb claims in his 1985 book Sur la Terre des premiers Hommes to have discovered the Hadar fields in 1968, but Kalb argues that claim to be incorrect.)[5] The IARE party examined a series of sedimentary layers called the Hadar Formation, which was dated to the late Pliocene to early Pleistocene epochs (3.5 to 2.3 million years ago).[6]

The anthropologist Donald Johanson, a member of the 1973 expedition to Hadar, returned the next year and discovered the fossil hominin "Lucy" in the late fall of 1974.[7] He spotted a right proximal ulna in a gully, followed by an occipital bone, a femur, some ribs, a pelvis, and a lower jaw. Within two weeks, nearly 40% of the hominoid skeleton had been identified and cataloged.[8] Lucy is the most famous fossil to have been found at Hadar. Lucy is among the oldest hominin fossils ever discovered[7] and was later given the taxonomic classification Australopithecus afarensis. (The name 'Lucy' was inspired by the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by The Beatles, which happened to be playing on the radio at base camp.)

In 1975, Donald Johanson made another discovery at a nearby site in Hadar: 216 specimens from approximately 17 individuals, most likely related and varying in age, called AL 333 (colloquially referred to as the "First Family").

About thirty years later in nearby Dikika, another Australopithecus afarensis fossil skeleton was found in a separate outcrop of the Hadar Formation across the Awash River from Hadar. The skeleton is of a three-year-old girl later named "Selam," which means peace in Amharic Ethiopian languages.

Other specimens discovered from Hadar Formation contain a vast diversity of bovid species found in Africa. The bovids found in the formation included the Aepycerotini (Aepyceros), Alcelaphini (Damalborea and Parmularius), Antilopini (Gazella), Bovini (Ugandax and Pelorovis[?]), Caprini (Budorcas), Cephalophini, Hippotragini (Oryx), Neotragini (Raphicerus[?] and Madoqua), Reduncini (Kobus), and Tragelaphini (Tragelaphus).[10][11] Artiodactyls outside the bovid family were present within the formation as well, namely the giraffids Giraffa and Sivatherium, Hippopotamus, and suids (Kolpochoerus, Notochoerus, and Nyanzachoerus). While a definitive list of carnivorans found within the Hadar Formation has yet to be compiled, confirmed genera that were found within the Hadar Formation include canids Canis and Nyctereutes, felids (Dinofelis,[12] Leptailurus, Felis, Homotherium, and Panthera), hyaenids (Chasmaporthetes, Ikelohyaena, Crocuta, Hyaena, and cf. Pliocrocuta), herpestids (Herpestes and cf. Helogale), mustelids (Mellivora, Enhydriodon, and cf. Poecilogale), and the viverrid cf. Civettictis. Mammals within the formation outside the artiodactyl and carnivoran families include a bat (indeterminate), the leporid Lepus, the equid Eurygnathohippus, rhinoceroses (Ceratotherium and Diceros),[13] old world primates (Parapapio, Theropithecus, and Cercopithecoides), proboscideans (the deinothere Deinotherium and elephants Elephas, Loxodonta, and Mammuthus),[14] old world porcupines Hystrix and Xenohystrix, murid rodents (Gerbilliscus, Acomys, Golunda, Oenomys, Praomys, Saidomys, Millardia, and Mus), the spalacid Tachyoryctes, a squirrel indet., and an aardvark species. Taxons within other classes are present within the Hadar Formation as well, such as birds (Plectropterus, Balearica, Anhinga, and Struthio) and reptiles (Crocodylus, Python, Varanus, and Bitis).[15][16][17][18][19][20]

• Ledi-Geraru

• Photo gallery from a University of Washington archaeological field season