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NEWS FEATURE NATURE|Vol 443|21 September 2006 N. PAGE N. Treasure hunters: Maurice Taieb (front) at work in Ethiopia’s Hadar site in 1974. THE HISTORY MAN Maurice Taieb laid the groundwork for the discovery of Lucy, the most famous fossil human ancestor. Rex Dalton meets the Tunisian-born geologist who prefers the desert to the limelight. t was the type of desert encounter where for his exploration of the Afar region of eastern In this issue of Nature, researchers continue only someone like Maurice Taieb wouldn’t Ethiopia. It is such a dangerous and hard place Taieb’s legacy with a report on a nearly com- flinch. In the shimmering afternoon heat of that only a handful of early-twentieth-century plete skeleton of a three-year-old A. afarensis3,4. Ithe Ethiopian desert, four tribesmen mate- researchers had attempted to explore there. From newly explored sediments just south of rialized across the river from Taieb’s geology When Taieb started in 1966, he had the rich the Lucy site, Zeresenay Alemseged, an Ethio- field camp. Along with their machine guns sediments nearly to himself. Eventually, his pian researcher at the Max Planck Institute for they carried millennia of tribal animosities, the work would help lead palaeoanthropologists Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Ger- sort of hatred that can erupt in to the best hunting grounds for many, and his colleagues provide a stunning deadly skirmishes over grazing “My passion was fossils of our earliest relatives. view of hominid evolution. rights or livestock. to do research Roaming the valley of the With this three-year-old A. afarensis female, Taieb recognized the visitors Awash River by Land Rover researchers can now see in a near-complete skel- as Issa tribesmen, prowling the in Ethiopia, or donkey, Taieb picked his eton what a mosaic of evolution the species is lands of their rivals, the Afar. His working with way through eroding gul- — the upper limbs have characteristics of gorilla Afar tribal guards and workers young Ethiopian lies. Following a trail of snail or chimp, whereas the lower limbs are made for recognized it too, and melted fossils and encouraged by an walking upright like modern humans. away as quickly as the intruders scientists.” — elephant tooth, in 1968 he dis- arrived. Unarmed, Taieb turned Maurice Taieb covered the fossil-rich site now Mother lode to his few remaining colleagues famous as Hadar. There, in Thanks to the Hadar site, researchers arguably and said: “Let’s invite them for tea.” 1974, colleagues would discover Lucy — the have more bones of Lucy’s species than of any They sipped and bantered until the Issa left, 3.3-million-year-old hominid that came to other early hominid. At Hadar, a sedimen- melting back into the desert glare as silently as symbolize a new era of palaeoanthropology1. tary layer at least 200 metres thick preserves they had come. Taieb had manoeuvred his way Lucy — named after the Beatles song “Lucy in A. afarensis history between about 3 million through another dangerous interlude. the Sky with Diamonds” but formally known and 3.5 million years ago. The annual rains “Fearless” is how US palaeoanthropologist as Australopithecus afarensis — walked upright have exposed hundreds of fossils, of dozens of Tim White, of the University of California, like modern humans but still displayed primi- individual hominids. This fossil library, with Berkeley, describes Taieb, a geological legend tive characteristics2. today’s new additions, allows researchers to do 268 ©2006 Nature PublishingGroup NATURE|Vol 443|21 September 2006 NEWS FEATURE crucial comparative analyses as with no other human ancestor. Beyond Hadar, Taieb has helped piece DALTON R. together the complex geological picture of the Afar region, which yields hominid specimens back to 6 million years old5. With such a pedi- gree, he should be a big name in science. But he’s barely known outside his field. In the four decades since Taieb first went into the field, palaeoanthropologists have had their share of publicity. Some work the book and media circuit like most scientists do a library. Taieb disdains such hype-mongering; dismissing mention of headline seekers with the sweep of a hand clutching his ever-present cigarette. He seems to prefer the respect of the desert tribesmen; the headlines he wants to see Don Johanson (left) and Tim White (centre) rarely speak, but Maurice Taieb can get them together. are for the Africans he helped to train. “My pas- sion was to do research in Ethiopia, working the time, new dating techniques had greatly not have been as limited had certain people with young Ethiopian scientists so they could improved scientists’ ability to pin down the listened to Taieb’s advice on what became do the work,” he says. ages of sediments and their contents. In short, known as “the grave-robbing incident”. Taieb also stands out in a field where squab- it was the perfect time and place for a desert In the late 1970s, while preparing a book bles over credit for discoveries and permits aficionado such as Taieb to start working. about Lucy’s discovery6, Johanson wrote about to work at key sites are common. “He is a role Born in Tunisia, to a Tunisian father and a digging the femur of a modern Afar tribesman model for all palaeoanthropology — an unself- French mother, Taieb began his lifelong love of out of a rock-covered cairn, in order to com- ish individual who invited anyone to his rich the African outback travelling with a merchant pare it with a fossilized hominid knee bone Hadar site,” says geochronologist Giday Wolde- uncle selling goods to Bedouin on the outskirts later determined to be A. afarensis. When Taieb Gabriel of the Los Alamos National Laboratory of Tunis. He eventually made his way to France, saw this vignette in an unpublished manuscript in New Mexico. “He shows how people can receiving his doctorate from the University of of the book, he says he objected vehemently, work together for the betterment of science.” Paris VI in 1974, with a thesis on the geology arguing that it would anger the Ethiopian of the Awash River basin. authorities. His warnings were ignored. Today, Summit meeting Decades after the French and Italians cut Johanson will not discuss this episode. Becom- And he likes getting people roads from Djibouti to ing agitated when asked about these events, he together. In June, the 71-year- Addis Ababa, Taieb followed denied hearing such advice. old Taieb threw a scientific those trails through the Afar. When the book was published in 1981, jeal- D. JOHANSON D. party at the CEREGE Medi- Again and again he circled ous competitors highlighted the passage for terranean European Labora- huge areas cut by gullies and Ethiopian officials. As predicted, they were tory outside the French city ridges. The treks gave him a furious. Johanson’s team, on which Taieb was of Marseilles, where he has vast knowledge of the land- the geologist, and others didn’t get their exca- been a researcher for nearly scape and its peoples; around vation permits back for nearly a decade. 30 years. He invited about 40 campfires today, Afar elders When Johanson finally secured permits scientists to a three-day con- still ask with interest after again in 1991, Taieb was dropped from the ference to reflect on Lucy’s Maurice. team. “He forgot to send the elevator back place in evolution. For many of Taieb’s early down,” Taieb was to say years later. Some Ethio- It mixed backroom people years in the field, the biggest pian scientists tried to help Taieb win access to with spotlight seekers, emi- worries were maintaining fuel another key spot, but to no avail. He has since nent Europeans with Africa’s Snap happy: Taieb in 1974, with and water supplies. It wasn’t returned to the Afar only to help a student finest young rock hounds. the fossil of Lucy. until 1993 when, in what he complete his thesis. And the Ethiopian scientists recalls as his most danger- “I have no hard feelings,” says Taieb. “It is life. were front and centre, moderating key sessions. ous moment, he faced down the Issa and asked I now have many letters of support from young Only Taieb, skilled in scientific as well as desert them to tea. After that incident, he and his two Ethiopian scientists; this is my pleasure.” And diplomacy, could bring together such a crowd. companions — a student and an interpreter he invited Johanson to his June symposium, Indeed, at a concluding dinner, Taieb was — lay away from their camp at night, ready to where the famous palaeoanthropologist spoke embraced simultaneously by two pillars of pal- bolt at any sign of attack. Indeed, the area soon highly of his former geologist colleague. Dur- aeoanthropology: White and Donald Johanson, turned violent; a day later, a team sent by French ing cocktails before the final dinner at a historic now of Arizona State University in Tempe, who officials to escort them out drove through a French estate, the pair ventured off together to led the crew that found Lucy. Former collabo- roadblock on an isolated path a few hours from speak of old times. For the observing Ethiopian rators, White and Johanson now barely speak Hadar. Panicked militia riddled the truck with scientists, who had learned from Taieb in lab to each other because of earlier bitter disagree- bullets, killing an Ethiopian cultural officer and and field, it was another chance to mark his ments over research style and conduct. seriously injuring two others. place in evolutionary history. ■ In his lecture at CEREGE, Johanson recalled For anyone, the Afar was a dangerous Rex Dalton writes for Nature from San Diego.