Maurice Taieb (22 July 1935 – 23 July 2021) was a French
geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...
and
paleoanthropologist. He discovered the
Hadar formation, recognized its potential importance to
paleoanthropology and founded the International Afar Research Expedition (IARE). This enabled co-director
Donald Johanson
Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist. He is known for discovering, with Yves Coppens and Maurice Taieb, the fossil of a female hominin australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region of Hada ...
to discover an early
hominin
The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas).
The ...
fossil, the 3.2-million-year-old
Australopithecine
Australopithecina or Hominina is a subtribe in the tribe Hominini. The members of the subtribe are generally ''Australopithecus'' (cladistically including the genera ''Homo'', '' Paranthropus'', and ''Kenyanthropus''), and it typically includ ...
Lucy
Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Lu ...
in the
Awash Valley of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
's
Afar Depression
The Afar Triangle (also called the Afar Depression) is a geological depression caused by the Afar Triple Junction, which is part of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. The region has disclosed fossil specimens of the very earliest hominins; th ...
.
Personal life
Taieb was born in Tunisia in 1935 to a Tunisian father and a French mother. He travelled through the North African outback with his uncle, a merchant who traded with the Bedouin on the outskirts of
Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
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.
Taieb received his
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...
from the
University of Paris VI
Pierre and Marie Curie University (french: link=no, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, UPMC), also known as Paris 6, was a public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussieu Campus in the L ...
in 1974. His thesis was on the geology of the Awash Riverbasin.
Taieb was survived by his wife Ingrid and their two sons, Laurent and Jean Marc.
Career
In 1966, Taieb started his geological exploration of the
Afar Region
The Afar Region (; aa, Qafar Rakaakayak; am, አፋር ክልል), formerly known as Region 2, is a regional state in northeastern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Afar people. Its capital is the planned city of Semera, which lies on the pave ...
of Ethiopia by Landrover and donkey. While others report that he first arrived in
Hadar in 1970, he later claimed to have discovered the Hadar fossil fields in 1968. In 1972, Taieb founded the IARE, and was present two years later when Donald Johanson discovered fossil fragments of Lucy. Australopithecus , Lucy.
Along with co-directors of IARE Johanson and Yves Coppens, Taieb played a key role in identifying the geology and history of the Afar Region. The area has yielded hominid and hominin specimens dated at 6 million years old.
Taieb was Director of Research for the National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) (
CNRS), at the European Centre of Research and Teaching of Geosciences of the Environment (Centre Européen de Recherche et d'Enseignement de Géosciences de l'Environnement) (CEREGE), in
Aix-en-Provence.
External links
Article in Nature magazine
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taieb, Maurice
1935 births
2021 deaths
Tunisian emigrants to France
Tunisian anthropologists
French anthropologists
University of Paris alumni
French paleoanthropologists
French geologists
Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research