Telling the tale of human origins, one fossil tooth at a time
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What big questions about human origins does the episode explore?
Hi, it's Flora, and you're listening to Science Friday. Where did we come from? How did humanity with our complicated civilizations and all of our human quirks and foibles come to be. This is one of science's most basic questions, and much of what we know about the answer traces back to important fossil finds in Ethiopia. The paleoanthropologist, Dr. Johannes Hylasilasi, has been key in that hunt for answers. He's helped discover some of the most important known hominid fossils, like the bones used to describe the 2.5 million year old Australopithecus garhi, and the first pieces of a 4.4 million year old partial skeleton of Artipithecus romidus. You know Artie. We all know Artie. And fossils of the five point eight million year old artipithecus kadaba.
His list of finds also includes specimens from Australopithecus offerensis and more modern species of Homo, including Homo erectus. So many branches of a human family tree. Today he's the director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University and a professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. And he's here to talk to us today about some of the big questions in human origins research and his own origin story. Welcome to Science Friday.
Pleasure to be with you, Flora.
We're delighted to have you. You've made these many spectacular finds. I read that originally you went to school for history that you you didn't really know that paleoanthropology was a thing. Do I have that right?
Yeah. So my my first degree, uh, which is from uh Addis Abba University in Ethiopia was in history. And um history as, you know, as as a subject relates to like, you know, written history but There were a couple of courses on archaeology, one of them being early man and um I really loved that course because that was the first course that kinda introduced me to fossils. And uh also introduced me to the name Australopithecus, which I had a lot of problems saying. But clearly uh that that interest kind of built built up when I started to work for the Ministry of Culture uh in Ethiopia where um I was assigned to work in a paleanthropology laboratory, uh, where there were so many fossils and um When I started going out to the field with paleanthropologists as antiquities officer, um seeing the fossils on the ground was another excitement which kind of increased my interest in them.
And um luckily I ended up being like a a good fossil finder. Some of them I didn't know what I was finding at that time, but they were really great fossils, some of them uh fossils of human ancestors.
What are these digs like? Are you camping? Is it hot? Paint me a picture.
Okay, well when I take you to the field, first of all, what I can tell you is you're going to a place where the temperatures go as high as a hundred ten degrees. Very hot. And you're gonna be living in a tent, in a small tent for four to five weeks, okay. And you're gonna have to think about all everything that you need while you're out there and all of your stuff you have to pack and get ready. But once you're in the field, um You get up. At six o'clock in the morning, eat breakfast at seven. Okay, and go out to the field. Looking for fossils. No What do we do once we are out in the field? A lot of people
How did Yohannes Haile‑Selassie transition from history student to paleoanthropologist?
When I when I come back from the field, um they usually ask me like how was the dig? And I'm like, I was not digging, you know. I was just walking around with my eyes on the ground looking for fossils and identifying whatever fossils we can find. And catalogue them, at the end of the day. So
Okay. Is this like beachcombing? Like you're just walking around with your head
exact
down.
Exactly. Well that's what you do for ninety nine percent of the time. Now some sometimes You might end up having an excavation and One good example from my site at Warren Zemille is like the discovery of the partial skeleton of uh Astral Kasap Francis, uh about three point six million year old uh partial skeleton. And We excavated that locality for like five years in a row. Okay. Now when do you decide when to do excavation?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What big questions about human origins does the episode explore?
0:02–3:46
2
How did Yohannes Haile‑Selassie transition from history student to paleoanthropologist?
3:46–8:26
3
What does a typical day in an Ethiopian fossil dig look like?
8:26–13:53
4
How do researchers decide when to excavate a promising fossil site?
13:53–19:44
5
Why are East African rift valleys hotspots for early hominin fossils?
19:44–23:10
6
How is the field moving toward more open data sharing and collaboration?
23:10–25:24
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Science Friday
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