Maurice Taieb (22 July 1935 – 23 July 2021) was a French
geologist and
paleoanthropologist
Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship ...
. He discovered the
Hadar formation, recognized its potential importance to
paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship ...
and founded the International Afar Research Expedition (IARE). This enabled co-director
Donald Johanson to discover an early
hominin fossil, the 3.2-million-year-old
Australopithecine Lucy in the
Awash Valley
The Awash (sometimes spelled Awaash; Oromo: ''Awaash'', Amharic: አዋሽ, Afar: ''We'ayot'', Somali: ''Webiga Dir'') is a major river of Ethiopia. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia and empties into a chain of ...
of
Ethiopia's
Afar Depression.
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.
Taieb received his
doctorate from the
University of Paris VI 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 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
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...
), 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
Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...
.
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