20 Million Years Fossil Hunt in the Mush River Valley in Ethiopia

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December 29, 2010, 4:55 PM
A Fossil Hunt in Ethiopia’s Mush Valley
By BONNIE F. JACOBS

Bonnie F. Jacobs
A fossil frog with bones and soft parts preserved.

Bonnie F. Jacobs, a paleobotanist at Southern Methodist University, writes from Ethiopia, where she is studying fossils of ancient plant and animal life. The current field season in the Mush Valley of Ethiopia is financed by a grant to Ellen Currano of Miami University, Ohio, from the National Geographic Society Committee on Research and Exploration.

Monday, Dec. 27

This winter’s field season in Ethiopia is my tenth since I began working there, and despite my experience I am filled with anticipation. Our project is a relatively new one — studying rocks and fossils from an important period of history, 22 million years ago — and the location, Mush Valley, is also somewhat new to our team (last year was our first collecting trip here).

Mush Valley is only about 160 kilometers northeast of the modern capital city, Addis Ababa, but it feels as though it could be a thousand miles away. Very little of city life intrudes into the villages of Upper and Lower Mush.

What really takes me away from it all are the rocks and fossils exposed by and alongside the Mush River. They provide us an exciting opportunity to document life, climate, landscape and atmosphere 22 million years ago. As we excavate blocks of fine-grained sediment — primarily shale — looking for clues to the past, the pivotal role played by that ancient time period is always on our mind.


Why is it important to know about the Ethiopian Plateau 22 million years ago? The Mush Valley preserves plants and animals from a time soon after a land connection was established between Afro-Arabia and Eurasia — a land connection that marked the end of Africa’s island status and that was used by animals to migrate between the two previously separated land masses. By looking at the fossil record from that period of time — before the Red Sea was formed — we can gain a clearer view of which species survived this great migration and which did not.

A handful of Africa’s unique island mammal families that were present 26 million years ago are absent from sites younger than Mush, but some originally Eurasian families are found in their place. Circumstantial evidence is pointing toward the influx of invaders as deadly competitors responsible for the demise of the ancient African mammalian families — including Arsinoitheres (an extinct rhinoceroslike mammal), some elephant families and some relatives of living hyraxes.

When and how did this happen? Did it happen all at once, very rapidly, or perhaps more gradually? And what can the historical record tell us about the evolution of Africa’s modern iconic mammals and the potential effects of mixing native and non-native animals today?


Bonnie F. Jacobs
A view of the Mush River near Addis Ababa, with its dark fossil-bearing shales.
We have already found some mammal bones at Mush — as yet unidentifiable — in addition to amazing fossil frogs with soft body parts preserved. We hope to find more! And we wonder: Will any of the extinct forms be among them, or will the fauna have a modern aspect?

We will also look at the plant world and ask the same questions. Already we have studied fossils that are 27 million to 28 million years old and come from a region called Chilga that is to the northwest of Addis Ababa. We know the Ethiopian Plateau was clothed by forests with trees, shrubs and vines whose relatives can be found today in the now separated forests of Central and West Africa on the one hand, and Eastern Africa on the other. We think that an increase in the length of the dry season sometime after 27 million years ago caused the loss of those plant groups on the Ethiopian Plateau. But when did the flora change, and can we find evidence of such a climate change?

Many people think the forests of the East and West became separated with development of the arid and semi-arid East African Rift, a slash in the earth running thousands of kilometers from the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea through Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. But the rift did not begin to develop until around 15 million years ago. Will the 22-million-year-old Mush flora be essentially the same as Chilga floras?

We have noticed a big difference between the forests of Chilga and what we have found so far at Mush. At Chilga we found palm fossils in rocks all over the depositional basin — they were ecologically important 27 million to 28 million years ago. Today, palms are rarely important in African forests, and are not diverse. We know from fossil pollen that palms were flourishing when tropical Africa and South America were splitting apart, about 70 million years ago, and they continue to flourish in the Amazon and Southeast Asia.


Bonnie F. Jacobs
In Ethiopia, Ellen Currano and Aaron Pan sample the shale for fossil plants.
If palms were still present and important 27 million years ago at Chilga, when was their demise? We are anxious to see if any palms turn up at Mush. If they are present, what kind are they? If they are absent, does it tell us something about climate change -– or was there another reason?

Past climate can be assessed from fossil plants — the shapes and sizes of their leaves, and by comparison with where their living relatives live — and various other measures from the rock record that are independent of the plants. We are able to estimate the mean annual temperature, and the mean annual and seasonal rainfall. The chance to use more than one means of estimating climate and the rest of the physical environment is part of what makes us so excited about our work.

Estimates of past climate are useful for testing the accuracy of computer-generated global climate models (useful for estimating scenarios of future climate), and for understanding how earth’s climate system operates in general. Climate scientists often run models meant to represent a time in the past to see if they can generate a global climate system that is consistent with what is known from estimates that come from fossils.

The record is woefully poor for tropical latitudes, and we expect that estimates from both Mush and Chilga will be useful for these kinds of studies. Perhaps more importantly, there is currently some scientific uncertainty about the climate during the interval between 27 million and 22 million years ago — and more data is needed to settle the issue.

The plant fossils are exquisitely preserved. They occur as leaf and fruit compressions with the organic outermost cuticle layer on both sides of the leaves still intact. Cuticle is a waxy substance laid down on the leaf surface as it develops, so looking at leaf cuticle is essentially the same as looking at a leaf’s outermost cells — the epidermis.

Included among these cells are hairs (yup, leaves have hairs), any sort of bump or ornamentation, and most important, stomata. A stoma is an opening through which carbon dioxide goes in and oxygen and water vapor escape. I like to think of them as akin to mouths (botanists, forgive me!). The pattern made by the cells of a leaf’s stomatal openings can help paleobotanists to identify it.

Here’s another cool thing about stomata: It has been shown that when the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is high, many plant species reduce the number of stomatal openings on their leaves (relative to the regular cells). Conversely, when atmospheric carbon dioxide is low, stomatal density tends to increase — it’s like getting more mouths to breathe with. We plan to use this relationship — which must first be established or calibrated using modern plants for the genus or species of plant fossil — in order to estimate the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere 22 million years ago.

Our team in the field this year consists of Mulugeta Feseha, an associate professor of geology at Addis Ababa University; Ellen Currano, an assistant professor at Miami University in Ohio who specializes in paleobotany and insect damage analysis; Aaron Pan, a paleobotanist who is curator of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History; Louis Jacobs, a professor of earth sciences at Southern Methodist University whose specialty is vertebrate paleontology; and Jordan Noret, a paleobotany graduate student at Southern Methodist University.

Africa, Bonnie F. Jacobs, climate change, Ethiopia, extinct, Fossils, mammal, rocks, Shale
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1.
Vicki
Duluth MN
December 29th, 2010
6:36 pm
Hey Bonnie, wonderful writing! Have a fantastic and productive field season.
Recommend Recommended by 2 Readers
2.
Chenjeri
Talent
December 30th, 2010
10:40 am
Good job. Keep up the excellent reporting. It's a great pedagogical tool to help my students see how scientific work is done-meticulous, painstaking, collaborative...and exciting.

Thanks. PC
Recommend Recommended by 0 Readers
3.
Kent
Montana
December 30th, 2010
10:40 am
Accurate and engaging... what science writing needs more of..
Recommend Recommended by 0 Readers
4.
barbarian horde
Goble, OR
December 30th, 2010
10:40 am
Thank you for your patient explanation of some very complex topics.
Recommend Recommended by 0 Readers
5.
Andy
Austin, TX
December 30th, 2010
10:40 am
Fascinating, great pictures; can't wait for more! It's interesting to hear what you're looking for and why, not to mention the big geological pictures. An annotated map would be great, if a little impractical from the field, but maybe someone back back at one of your home institutions could produce one from your directions. Maps with a little Ethiopian geography/topography, along with some maps of the forest areas, and maybe the relevant historical geology.
Recommend Recommended by 0 Readers
6.
CitizenJoe
Oregon
December 30th, 2010
10:41 am
Lovely exposition! Thanks!
I was particularly interested in fossil preservation of stomata; pretty darned fine detail to be preserved.
Can you tell from the fossils how thick the cuticle was? If so, can you infer the level of solar exposure of the plant just before death? Or the season?
Joe

Mengistu worku the Ethiopian 8 legend in Soccer dies at the age of 70

Ethiopian soccer legend Mengistu Worku passed away

December 16th, 2010 | | 6 Comments

Ethiopian soccer legend Mengistu Worku who helped Ethiopia win the 3rd African Cup has passed away, according to the Reporter.

Mengistu, 70, had been fighting cancerous tumor since 2001. He was receiving treatment in South Africa and Thailand.

Memorial service for Mengistu Worku will be held on Friday in Addis Ababa at the St. Petros Church where he will be laid to rest.

The following is a brief biography of Mengistu Worku (Sources: Wikipedia, Facebook, Ethiopian Review archive).

Mengistu Worku was an Ethiopian footballer, recognized as one of the best football players in Ethiopia’s history.

He is most popularly known for scoring 2 goals in the final of the 3rd African cup against Egypt, when Ethiopia won their only major trophy to date by defeating Egypt 4-2.


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Mengistu Worku with the Ethiopian national team that won the 3rd African Cup (1962). L. to R. standing: Luciano Vassalo (captain), Awad Mohammed, Tesfaye GebreMedhin, Berhe Goytom, Asmelash Berhe, Kiflom Araya, Gashe Tilahun (trainer); L. to R. sitting: Girma Zeleke, Gila-Michael T. Mariam, Italo Vassalo, Getachew Wolde, Mengistu Worku.

Mengistu finished as top scorer of that tournament with 3 goals. He debuted with Saint-George SA in 1957 and remained with the club for the entirety of his career.


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Ethiopians in Europe honor heroes of the 3rd African Cup Mengistu Worku and Luciano Vassalo (Sweden, 2008)

Mengistu was given numerous offers to play professionally for teams in Italy and France, as well as Egypt’s El Zamalek, but like earlier legend and coach Ydnekatchew, he refused all offers and stayed in Ethiopia wearing Saint George’s characteristic “V” across his chest.


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Mengistu Worku with former team mate and captain of the victorious 3rd African Cup Ethiopian national team Luciano Vassallo (1991)

Mengistu wore the number 8 for the entirety of his club and national team career. His international career began in 1958 and ended in 1970, following disappointment in the 7th African Nations cup in Sudan, where Ethiopia finished bottom of their group. He still managed to score 3 goals, the only Ethiopian goals in that tournament.

Mengistu played 2 more years with Saint George, retiring in 1972. He is the seventh-highest scorer in the history of the African Cup Of Nations with 10 goals.


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Members of the Ethiopian National team celebrate their 3rd African Cup title

Mengistu coached the national team after retirement, but the team failed to match the success it found during his playing days. He did, however, coach the country to their first-ever CECAFA cup title in 1987, when the tournament was hosted by Ethiopia.


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1960s Ethiopian national team arrives in Moscow. Mengistu Worku is on the right.

In 2001, Mengistu was struck by a tumor, and doctors had told him he had only months to live. With treatment unavailable in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi paid for Mengistu to travel to South Africa for treatment. “It was because of Al Amoudi that I am standing before you today,” he said on Ethiopian television.


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The 1968 Ethiopian National team. First row, left to right: Abdulrahman "Pache", Haile Tesfa-Gabir, Girma Asmerom, Luciano Vassalo, Col. Tamrat Yigezu (President of Ethiopian Football Federation), Yidnekachew Tessema, Gashe Tilahun, Bereket Amde-Michael, Getachew Dula, Getachew Wolde, Adamu Alemu (assistant coach); Second row: Tesfaye Bahire (assistant coach), Mengistu Worku, Tekeda Alemu, Shewangizaw Agonafer, Getachew Gelashe, Hailu Abebe Woldegiorgis; 3rd row: AmdeMichael, Kiflom Araya, Yohannes Tiliku, Abraha Araya, Tesfaye Gebremedhin, Berhe Goytom; 4th row: Eshetu GebreHiwot, BekureTsion GebreHiwot, Fisseha WoldeAmanuel, Milosevic (head coach), Getachew Abdo; Last row: Nega WoldeSelassie

At the 2002 CECAFA Cup, Mengistu was honored before the tournament kickoff by the Council for East and Central Africa Football Association, along with five other east African footballers and three referees, including Tesfaye Gebreyesus, the Ethiopian who refereed at three ACN tournaments.

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Diversity Education- the Kansas Professor experience with Ethiopia Reads Project

rofessor: Trip opened her eyes
By Andy Rao

junior staff writer

Published: Friday, December 10, 2010
Updated: Friday, December 10, 2010 08:12


Tiffany Roney
Laurie Curtis, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, displays piece of artwork she bought during her travels in Ethiopia.

Throughout history, the word diversity has taken on many different meanings, both literal and implied. Until the 15th century, diversity actually signified something perverse or wicked.
In today's world, however, the term has taken on a more positive meaning. Rapid globalization has caused the world to shrink and has caused people to come into close contact with others of different race, religion and culture.

During the summer of 2010, 12 teachers from around the nation explored this globalization by participating in a month-long excursion to Ethiopia to explore cultural diversity. The teachers spent a majority of their trip in the capital city, Addis Ababa, visiting schools, churches, monasteries and other centers of learning to explore the educational system of the African nation.

Partnering with a nonprofit literacy program called Ethiopia Reads, the participants traveled to the northern and southern parts of Ethiopia, distributing books and other learning materials to eager teachers and children. An $81,566 grant allocated by the Fulbright-Hays Group Project funded the majority of the program and helped the participants pay the travel expenses and for any books that were bought to distribute to the schools.

Two K-State professors, Jacqueline Spears and Laurie Curtis, went on the trip.
"It was an amazing opportunity to see the rich culture of Ethiopia," said Curtis, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction. "The culture, customs, rituals and societal traditions that I was fortunate enough to be a part of showed me another side of human civilization that opened my eyes to not only differences but the commonalities between people all over the world."
The cultural exchange program gave the participants insight into the cultural traditions as well as the academic structure in Ethiopia.

"The biggest difference I saw between Ethiopia and the United States is the amount of resources kids in the states have at their disposal," Curtis said. "Here at home, kids can learn using the Internet, computers and other gadgets. In Ethiopia, we had to use more conventional methods to connect with the students."

One of these conventional methods included using readily available material to construct homemade books. The handwritten books were made up of paper, staples and duct tape. The stories were written in Amharic, one of the 84 languages native to Ethiopia, by the schoolchildren.
The books were used to facilitate literacy initiatives and were major additions to the libraries across the countries. In one school, a suitcase full of books that the participants brought doubled the size of the library.

Both Curtis and Spears agreed that the journey to Ethiopia was an eye-opening experience. The teachers were able to be a part of a world in which the education system was very raw — the literacy rate in Ethiopia was 38 percent in 2008 — and they said this helped them "count their blessings."

"Although the Ethiopian government has made a push for a stronger universal education system, there is still much progress to be made" said Spears, professor of curriculum and instruction and director of K-State's Center for Science Education. "There were many schools that needed help in finding serviceable resources and teachers that could motivate more parents to send their children to school."

The teachers plan to use their experiences from the trip to create much of their own classroom curriculum.

"The purpose of the project is to share the Ethiopian culture with American students," Spears said. "This trip has given teachers across the nation an opportunity to expose their students to a diverse learning environment."

Participants have already implemented the curriculum in K-12 schools, using "realia," which are traditional cultural items like music, different types of native clothing and other objects to facilitate learning and add a unique cultural exchange to classrooms.

The project will formally end on May 31, 2011, when participants will give a final presentation depicting the benefits and successes of the program.

Biodiesel Crop Farming in Ethiopia Via Jatropha Crude Oil

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia -- Policy-makers in Ethiopia, challenged by fluctuating oil prices and poverty, are seeking solutions that will improve the living conditions of its people and boost its fragile economy. One such solution, Ethiopian leaders hope, is renewable energy.

Statistics from the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines and Energy (MoME) indicate that the country spends about Ethiopian Birr 10 billion (US$800 million) annually to import petroleum products for domestic consumption. The figure, according to the MoME represents more than 90 percent of Ethiopia’s earnings from foreign trade each year. Were the country to tap some of its renewable energy potential, the energy independence it would achieve as a result, would be a boon to the economy.

Because of its location, Ethiopia is perhaps one of the most-suitable nations in Africa for tapping renewable sources of energy not only for its own economy, but also for export into regional economies such as Kenya, which is always looking at enhancing its energy capacity.

Biodiesel Production

While Ethiopia boasts of numerous green energy possibilities such as geothermal, solar and wind power generation, it is the biodiesel sub-sector that has taken off over the last few years and continues to witness increased attention both from the government and development partners from abroad.

Ethiopia is one of the largest countries in Africa but it is also one of the driest, a factor that renders most of its land unsuitable for agricultural production. This has led the Ethiopian government to shift its focus to biodiesel crops that flourish under the harsh climatic conditions of Ethiopia.

The shift from expensive fossil fuels to cost-effective biofuels has received a stamp of approval from the Ethiopian government. It recently approved a 16-page renewable energy strategic document that was prepared under a collaborative partnership between the MoME, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD).

According to an expert from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED), as the country has grown over the last few years, it has had to devote more and more of its already limited resources towards the purchase of petroleum products and now sees a clear need for cheaper energy that it hopes to get through renewables.

The most popular biodiesel plants in Ethiopia include castor seeds and jatropha curcas. Numerous companies from India, Europe, Israel and the United States have formed joint partnerships with local companies to help grow the plants for biodiesel extraction.

One of these companies that has already started operations is Global Energy Ethiopia (GEE), which has pumped in more than Ethiopian Birr 200 million (US$ 20 million) in a castor and jatropha seed farming and processing program that will allow GEE to process more than 40,000 tonnes of crude oil when fully operational. GEE started production in 2007 after it leased more than 30,000 hectares of land in Wolaita Soddo in the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPR).

The World’s Largest Biodiesel Producer?

In addition to GEE, Eco Energy is an Ethiopian company that has entered into a partnership with the Indian-based Jatropha World. The partnership allows for the exchange of technical expertise that will allow Eco Energy to develop a 25,000 hectare jatropha farm for biodiesel production.

According to Robel Debebe, the Chief Executive Officer of Eco Energy, the firm is set to pump in more than Ethiopian Birr 250 million (US$25 million) towards the biodiesel venture that will see the company produce jatropha crude oil for the local market and for export, especially to European nations.

According to MoME, biodiesel offers Ethiopia one of the best alternatives to expensive fossil fuels and accords the progressively expanding Ethiopian economy cheap energy sources. The growing interest in the sector is evident, as the Ethiopian Investment Agency (EIA) has over the last two years registered more than 60 companies interested in venturing into the biodiesel production sub-sector.

According to EIA, there are more than 25 million hectares of land available in Ethiopia suitable for biodiesel crop farming. If fully developed, this would make Ethiopia the largest biodiesel producer in the world, with an annual output of more than 20 million litres of crude oil processed from biodiesel crops.

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JimW
December 3, 2010
It is not my business but I see GreenGas.cc as another way these people can become self sufficient. If they have wind or solar they can use GreenGas machines to make fuel. If anyone knows a govt person or group from Ethiopia, they should contact GreenGas.cc because I know they are looking for partners and sites to place machines.
A

Chinese and the French take over Ethiopia Telecom

By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia signed an agreement late on Thursday to outsource the management of its sole telecoms provider to France Telecom as it seeks to improve coverage and service.

The agreement marks the first foray by a foreign company into Ethiopia's state-owned telecoms industry, which remains one of Africa's few remaining government monopolies in the sector.

The management of Ethio Telecom will be taken over by the France Telecom for two years, in a deal worth 30 million euros for the French company, the state-owned monopoly said.

"France Telecom will strive to improve and modernise Ethio Telecom's overall business aspect by implementing a new organisational structure," it said in a statement.

Ethiopia has the second highest population in Africa after Nigeria but has one of the least developed telecoms industries on a continent where mobile phone use is exploding.

Mobile phone usage is about 5 percent out of a total population of more than 80 million people. In neighbouring Kenya, mobile penetration is more than 50 percent.

The Ethiopian government has invested heavily in its telecoms industry in the past few years in a bid to boost communication flows and reduce rates, including an 80 Gigabyte fibre network via the Port of Sudan landing station.

Chinese telecoms equipment maker ZTE bagged a contract from Ethiopia in 2008 to build next-generation telecoms networks in 14 cities.

The Horn of Africa nation, however, has so far shrugged off calls by the International Monetary Fund and other agencies to liberalise its telecoms sector.

© Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved

France Telecom to manage Ethio Telecom

France Telecom Takes Over Management of Ethiopia’s Monopoly
December 03, 2010, 1:37 AM EST
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By William Davison
Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- France Telecom SA started a two-year contract to manage Ethiopia’s state-owned Ethio Telecom, Communications and Information Technology Minister Debretsion Gebremichael said.

The Paris-based company will, depending on performance, earn a fee of 30 million euros ($40 million) to manage the utility, Debretsion told reporters yesterday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.

Accounting systems will be modernized and new services introduced, Ethio Telecom chief executive officer Jean-Michel Latute said.

Ethio Telecom replaced the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corp. on Nov. 29 to help boost services and infrastructure. The East African nation is the second-most expensive country in the world for broadband Internet, according to the United Nation’s International Telecommunications Union.

An underwater fiber-optic cable link via Djibouti will increase capacity and lower broadband Internet costs, Debretsion said.

--Editors: Gordon Bell, Antony Sguazzin.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

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