Hadar, Ethiopia

Hadar (also spelled Qad daqar, Qadaqar; Afar "white [qidi] stream [daqar]")[1] is a paleontological site in Mille district, Administrative Zone 1 of the Afar Region, Ethiopia, some 15 km upstream (west) of the A1 road's bridge across the Awash River (Adayitu kebele).[2]

Administrative Zone 1 (Afar Region), Ethiopia

It is situated on the southern edge of the Afar Triangle (part of East Africa's Great Rift Valley), along the left banks of the Awash River, between two minor tributaries, the eponymous Kada Hadar and the Kada Gona.[2] The site has yielded some of the most well-known hominin fossils, including "Lucy."

According to Jon Kalb, early maps show caravan routes passing within 10 or 15 kilometers of Hadar, though not through it. The British explorer L.M. Nesbitt passed 15 kilometers west of Hadar in 1928.[1]

Paleontology
"Lucy," one of the most famous hominin fossils, is a 3.2 million year old Australopithecus afarensis fossil discovered in Hadar, Ethiopia by Donald Johanson in 1974.

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 a number of 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 time the first hominin fossil was found. (Taieb claims in his 1985 book Sur la terre des premiers hommes[3] to have discovered the Hadar fields in 1968, but Kalb argues that this claim of an earlier find is incorrect.) 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).[4]

Anthropologist Donald Johanson, a member of the 1973 expedition to Hadar, returned the next year and discovered the fossil hominin "Lucy" in late fall of 1974.[5] 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 was identified and cataloged.[6] Lucy is the most famous fossil to have been found at Hadar. Lucy is among the oldest hominin fossils ever discovered[5] 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, 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.

See also

References
  1. Jon Kalb Adventures in the Bone Trade (New York: Copernicus Books, 2001), p. 83
  2. E. N. Dimaggio et al., "Tephrostratigraphy and depositional environment of young (<2.94 Ma) Hadar Formation deposits at Ledi-Geraru, Afar, Ethiopia", Journal of African Earth Sciences 112A (December 2015), pp. 234-250 (Figure 2), doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2015.09.018.
  3. Halstead, L. B. (1984). A la recherche du passé: la vie sur Terre, des origines aux premiers hommes. Hachette. ISBN 2010096029. OCLC 25125386.
  4. Feibel, Craig S.; Christopher J. Campisano (2004). "Sedimentary Patterns in the Pliocene Hadar Formation, Afar Rift, Ethiopia". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. Hogenboom, Melissa. "The 'Lucy' fossil rewrote the story of humanity". Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  6. "Lucy's Story | Institute of Human Origins". iho.asu.edu. Retrieved 25 October 2018.

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