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Ethiopian Science and Technology Agency
Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Research
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
by Marlowe Hood
23 August, 2007
PARIS (AFP) - Ten million-year-old fossils discovered in Ethiopia show that humans and apes probably split six or seven million years earlier than widely thought, according to landmark study released Wednesday. more >>
08 August, 2007
Addis Ababa - Ethiopian famous fossil Lucy has safely arrived in America on Sunday, Culture and Tourism Minister Ambassador Mohamed Drir said. more >>
By ANITA POWELL, Associated Press Writer
06 August, 2007
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - The 3.2 million-year-old skeleton known as Lucy was quietly flown out of Ethiopia overnight for a tour of the United States, a trip some consider too risky for one of the world's most famous fossils. more >>
11 July, 2007
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian scientists said on Tuesday they have discovered hominid fossil fragments dating from between 3.5 million and 3.8 million years ago in what could fill a crucial gap in the understanding of human evolution. more >>
22 June, 2007
University of Nottingham scientists have been instrumental in helping to establish a pioneering branch of chemistry in Ethiopia. more >>
By Andualem Sisay - Capital
28 March 2007
After four years of research, scientists from the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and International Livestock Research Institute (IRLI), have identified a cattle-type resistant to a fatal form of bovine disease. more >>
By Malcolm Ritter, The Associated Press
20 September 2006
NEW YORK — Scientists have discovered a remarkably complete skeleton of a three-year-old female from the ape-man species represented by "Lucy."
The discovery should fuel a contentious debate about whether this species, which walked upright, also climbed and moved through trees easily like an ape.
The remains are 3.3 million years old, making them the oldest known skeleton of such a youthful human ancestor.
"It's pretty unbelievable" to find such a complete fossil from that long ago, said scientist Fred Spoor. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime find."
Spoor, professor of evolutionary anatomy at University College London, describes the fossil in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature with Zeresenay Alemseged of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and other scientists.
The skeleton was discovered in 2000 in northeastern Ethiopia. Scientists have spent five painstaking years removing the bones from sandstone, and the job will take years more to complete.
Judging by how well it was preserved, the skeleton may have come from a body that was quickly buried by sediment in a flood, the researchers said.
The skeleton has been nicknamed "Selam," which means means "peace" in several Ethiopian languages.
The creature was a member of Australopithecus afarensis, which lived in Africa between about 4 million and 3 million years ago. The most famous afarensis is Lucy, discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, which lived about 100,000 years after the newfound specimen.
Most scientists believe afarensis stood upright and walked on two feet, but they argue about whether it had ape-like agility in trees.
That climbing ability would require anatomical equipment like long arms, and afarensis had arms that dangled down to just above the knees. The question is whether such features indicate climbing ability or just evolutionary baggage.
Spoor said so far, analysis of the new fossil hasn't settled the argument but does seem to indicate some climbing ability.
While the lower body is very human-like, he said, the upper body is ape-like:
• The shoulder blades resemble those of a gorilla rather than a modern human.
• The neck seems short and thick like a great ape's, rather than the more slender version humans have to keep the head stable while running.
• The organ of balance in the inner ear is more ape-like than human.
• The fingers are very curved, which could indicate climbing ability, "but I'm cautious about that," Spoor said. Curved fingers have been noted for afarensis before, but their significance is in dispute.
A big question is what the foot bones will show when their sandstone casing is removed, he said. Will there be a grasping big toe like the opposable thumb of a human hand? Such a chimp-like feature would argue for climbing ability, he said.
Yet, to resolve the debate, scientists may have to find a way to inspect vanishingly small details of such old bones, to get clues to how those bones were used in life, he said.
Bernard Wood of George Washington University, who didn't participate in the discovery, said in an interview that the fossil provides strong evidence of climbing ability. But he also agreed that it won't settle the debate among scientists, which he said "makes the Middle East look like a picnic."
Overall, he wrote in a Nature commentary, the discovery provides "a veritable mine of information about a crucial stage in human evolutionary history."
The fossil revealed just the second hyoid bone to be recovered from any human ancestor. This tiny bone, which attaches to the tongue muscles, is very chimp-like in the new specimen, Spoor said.
While that doesn't directly reveal anything about language, it does suggest that whatever sounds the creature made "would appeal more to a chimpanzee mother than a human mother," Spoor said.
The fossil find includes the complete skull, including an impression of the brain and the lower jaw, all the vertebrae from the neck to just below the torso, all the ribs, both shoulder blades and both collarbones, the right elbow and part of a hand, both knees and much of both shin and thigh bones. One foot is almost complete, providing the first time scientists have found an afarensis foot with the bones still positioned as they were in life, Spoor said.
The work was funded by the National Geographic Society, the Institute of
Human Origins at Arizona State University, the Leakey Foundation and the Planck
institute.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
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ADDIS ABABA, April 12, 2006 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian archeologists said Wednesday they have uncovered several ancient relics and building through excavations they conducted at the northern ancient town of Axum.
Tekle Hagos, coordinator of the archeologists' team told journalists that the team has been carrying out excavations beginning from Feb. 8 on the tombs of King Izana and King Remhai around the Statue of Queen of Sheba in Axum town.
Tekle said the team has uncovered claywares, several metallic and stone-made relics as well as a four-pillar building.
He added that by the side of the ancient building was found a throne statue erected for a warrior named Hatsani Daniel.
"The script on the statue describes the victory of Hatsani Daniel at Kessela and Wolqait and his refusal to accept the appointment offered to him by the Aksumite king," said Tekle.
The team also uncovered glassware and clay molding tools which indicate that glass technology was in use in ancient Axum, he said.
Moreover, Tekle said armaments, claywares, silver and bronze coins, bracelets and other ornaments have been found at the site.
Ethiopia is one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world. The first known civilization in Ethiopia was that of the mighty Aksumite Kingdom.
Having established itself in 1,000 BC, in northern Ethiopia, it eventually spread over all of northern and even central Ethiopia. The ancient city of Axum, which was started by the Aksumites, was Ethiopia's first capital city.
Editor: Luan Shanglin
April 12 (Bloomberg) -- Four million-year-old teeth and bones unearthed in Ethiopia may be older than Lucy, the ape-man skeleton found 32 years ago, and may help clarify the link between primates and humans in the evolutionary chain.
The latest fossils are part of the human ancestor group called Australopithecus anamensis, which preceded the afarensis species to which Lucy belonged. Scientists believe this new species lived somewhere between when Lucy did -- 3.2 million years ago -- and fossils believed to be one of the earliest phases of human evolution as old as 4.4 million years.
The find, discussed in the journal Nature this week by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, draw a better link between the Lucy species and an earlier form of man called Ardipithecus ramidus. With this find, fossils from all three have been found within walking distance of each other.
``It fills the gap in the fossil record there in Ethiopia,'' said Tim White, co-director of the Human Evolution Research Center at Berkeley, who took part in the analytical studies of Lucy in the 1970s.
Scientists made the discovery in the Middle Awash valley of Ethiopia's Afar region, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of where the skeleton nicknamed Lucy was discovered in 1974.
The fossil discoveries, the most recent of which were in December, include about 30 pieces from at least eight individuals, White said. They are mostly teeth and jawbone fragments and include hand and foot bones and a thigh bone. They may be about 4.1 million years old.
One set of teeth was shattered by erosion, and scientists had to reconstruct them, White said.
He said the new anamensis fossils help to define the origin of the ape-man genus and gives scientists a more complete picture of human evolution from one region.
``It really provides the answer to `Where did the Lucy species come from?''' White said.
Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher has put much of his energy into negotiations at various biodiversity-related fora – in particular the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He has built a strong group of well-prepared African negotiators who initiated and took the lead in the Group of 77 and China Group. As a result, Africa has come out with united, strong and progressive positions, such as no patents on living materials and the recognition of community rights, which have strengthened the G77 and China’s negotiating positions.
He was instrumental in securing recommendations from the African Union (AU) encouraging African countries to develop and implement community rights, a common position on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and a clear stance against patents on life. He also guided the drafting of the AU model legislation for community rights, which is being used as the common model by all African countries.