Zeresenay Alemseged facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Zeresenay Alemseged
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| Born | 4 June 1969 |
| Alma mater | Addis Ababa University, University of Paris |
| Known for | Paleoanthropology and the discovery of the Selam/Dikika Child Australopithcecus afarensis fossil |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Paleoanthropology, Anthropology |
| Institutions | University of Chicago |
Zeresenay "Zeray" Alemseged (born June 4, 1969) is a scientist from Ethiopia. He studies ancient humans and their ancestors, a field called Paleoanthropology. He teaches at the University of Chicago. In 2013, he became a special member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was also chosen for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2021.
Dr. Alemseged is famous for finding Selam on December 10, 2000. Selam is also known as the "Dikika child" or "Lucy’s child." She is a nearly complete fossil of a 3.3-million-year-old child. Selam belongs to the species Australopithecus afarensis. She is called the "world’s oldest child" because she is the most complete skeleton of an early human ancestor found so far.
Selam's discovery helps us understand how humans and our early ancestors evolved. It also teaches us about the lives and childhood of these ancient species. Dr. Alemseged found Selam while leading the Dikika Research Project (DRP). He started this project in 1999. The DRP is a team of scientists from many countries. They continue to make important discoveries each year. Dr. Alemseged's work focuses on finding and understanding ancient human fossils. He also studies their environments and how they lived.
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Becoming a Scientist
Dr. Alemseged started his career studying rocks and the Earth, known as geology. He earned his first degree in Geology from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia in 1990. After that, he worked at the National Museum of Ethiopia. There, he helped in the lab that studied ancient human fossils.
In 1993, he went to France to study more. He earned a master's degree from the University of Montpellier II in 1994. Then, he completed his Ph.D. in paleoanthropology in Paris in 1998. He studied at Pierre and Marie Curie University and the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle.
After his studies, Dr. Alemseged returned to Ethiopia in 1999. He started the Dikika Research Project (DRP). This was the first major fossil research project led by an Ethiopian scientist. The DRP team includes experts from many countries. Their main goal is to find new information about how early humans evolved. They also study how the ancient environment affected this evolution. Dr. Alemseged leads the project and studies the fossils they find.
From 2000 to 2003, Dr. Alemseged worked at Arizona State University in the United States. It was during this time that he made his most important discovery: Selam. Only a small piece of Selam's skeleton was found in 2000. It took six more years to carefully dig her out and study her. The first findings were published in the science journal Nature in 2006.
Later, Dr. Alemseged worked at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. Then, he became a curator at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. In 2016, he joined the University of Chicago.
The Dikika Child: Selam
On December 10, 2000, Dr. Alemseged and his team made a huge discovery. They found the skull of a fossilized child. Over the next five years, they carefully dug out more of the skeleton. This child was named Selam. She is the earliest and most complete young human ancestor ever found.
Selam belongs to the species Australopithecus afarensis. She was about 3 years old when she died. She lived about 150,000 years before Lucy, another famous Australopithecus afarensis fossil.
Selam's discovery is important because of her age and how complete her skeleton is. Most early human fossils are just small pieces, like a skull or a few teeth. But with Selam, the team found her complete skull. They even found an imprint of her brain in the sandstone. They also found her hyoid bone, which is very rare to find in such old fossils. This bone is in the throat and is important for speech.
The team also found many bones from below her neck. These included most of her spine, ribs, collar bones, and shoulder blades. They also found parts of her leg bones and an almost complete foot. Many of these bones are rarely found in other early human fossils.
Scientists believe Selam was buried quickly, perhaps by a flood. This protected her bones from being damaged by animals. Her bones were stuck together in a block of sandstone. Dr. Alemseged worked very carefully for six years to free her skeleton. He used tiny dental tools, removing soil grain by grain.
Scientists used CT scans on Selam's skull. This helped them figure out she was a female and her age when she died. They also learned about her brain size. It was about 330 cubic centimeters, similar to a 3-year-old chimpanzee's brain. However, Selam's brain was still growing. This suggests that Australopithecus afarensis babies grew their brains more slowly, like modern humans. This slow brain growth might be the start of what we call human "childhood."
Selam's leg and foot bones show that she walked upright, even at 3 years old. This means her species, Australopithecus afarensis, walked on two legs. However, her shoulder bones and long, curved fingers are like those of apes. This suggests that while they walked on the ground, they could also climb trees. Climbing would have helped them escape predators, especially at night.
The rare hyoid bone also gave important clues. Selam's hyoid bone is more like that of African great apes than modern humans. This bone is thought to be important for developing human speech. Finding it helps us understand how the human voice box evolved. Selam's skeleton shows a mix of features from both humans and apes. This clearly shows that our ancestors' bodies and behaviors were slowly changing over time. It was evolution in action!
Research Projects
The Dikika Research Project (DRP)
Dr. Alemseged is very interested in finding and studying new fossils of early humans and other primates. He wants to understand how changes in their bodies are linked to changes in their environment. To do this, he started the Dikika Research Project (DRP) in 1999.
This project involves many different types of scientists. They study ancient layers of earth that are between 4 million and 500,000 years old. The Dikika site in Ethiopia is perfect for this research. Its ancient layers are older than those at Hadar, where Lucy was found. This allows scientists to study a very early time in human history. Another site, Asbole, helps them understand a later period called the Middle Pleistocene, which is not well known in the region.
Other Activities
East African Association of Paleontologists and Paleoanthropologists (EAAPP)
Dr. Alemseged helped start the East African Association of Paleontologists and Paleoanthropologists (EAAPP). He was the Vice Chairperson and then the Chairperson until 2022. This group was officially launched in Kenya in 2005. It is the first organization of its kind in East Africa.
Members of the EAAPP meet every two years. They share their research findings. They also discuss important topics like research rules, managing fossil collections, and ethical ways to do fieldwork. Scientists and students from many countries are part of this group.
See also
- Dawn of Humanity (2015 PBS film)
