Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie

Curator and Head of Physical Anthropology
e-mail: yhailese@cmnh.org
phone: (216) 231-4600, ext. 3242
B.A., history, The Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
M.A., anthropology, The University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D., integrative biology, The University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie is curator and head of Physical Anthropology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History. His main area of research is Plio-Miocene mammalian evolution with a focus on the origin of the earliest hominids and evolutionary history of early Australopithecus. Haile-Selassie is principal investigator of an active fieldwork project in Ethiopia, the Woranso-Mille paleontological project. Scientists from Ethiopia, Europe, and various institutions in the United States collaborate on a variety of subdisciplines of geology and paleontology. His collaborative fieldwork is shedding new light on the relationships among the earliest Australopithecus species and evolution of numerous extinct and extant mammalian taxa. As a member of the Middle Awash project (1993 – 2007), Haile-Selassie has discovered some of the most important hominid fossils known to science. Among these are the holotype of the 2.5 million-year-old Australopithecus garhi, the first pieces of the 4.4 million-year-old Ardipithecus ramidus partial skeleton, nicknamed "Ardi," and fossil remains of the 5.8 million-year-old Ardipithecus kadabba. He has recently co-edited a monograph on the latter species, which he named in 2001. Haile-Selassie is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and fellow of the Institute for the Science of Origins at Case Western Reserve University. He is also adjunct professor in the Departments of Anthropology, Anatomy, and Cognitive Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, and adjunct professor in the Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences at the Cleveland State University, where he teaches human evolution courses at both institutions. He serves as a member of the Evolutionary Biology Advisory Committee at Case Western Reserve University in addition to serving as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals and granting agencies.

Areas of specialization or interest:

Paleoanthropology with particular emphasis on hominid origins and evolution, and evolutionary history of early Australopithecus; African Cenozoic vertebrate paleontology with emphasis on the Plio-Miocene faunal evolution in eastern Africa, and the origin of modern African faunal communities.

Current research:

Continuing paleoanthropological field research in the Woranso-Mille study area, a Pliocene site located in Ethiopia’s Afar region. Studying new fossil remains of early hominids from Woranso-Mille and generating new data to better reconstruct the phylogeny, paleobiology, and diversity of middle Pliocene hominid taxa. Studying the associated non-hominid faunal assemblages in order to understand taxonomic diversity, origin and extinction rates, and reconstruct past environments.

Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie Curriculum Vitae