KFRP Weblog

Lawrence Nzuve

In my earlier posts I have covered some of the fossils and how they have been found. Here are some of the views of the area in which we are working. The terrain is quite rugged and challenging. The crew travel the winding paths down to the exposures each morning reminding me of the desert caravans of very early expeditions.

The crew walking out with their water containers to the field

And then we get to collecting and recording the specimens. However its more entertaining to picture the people taking the photographs!

Drs Fred Spoor (standing), Matt Skinner (in near squat) and Dominic

Dr Spoor taking a picture.

And then there is the time after lunch.

A siesta under the salvadora

And occasionally we find some rather extraordinary specimens. Here is a sandstone moulded by nature perhaps her most artistic mood…

Nzuve poses next to a sandstone which resembles a bizarre cranium complete with eye sockets and nasal bone

By Lawrence Nzuve

Robert’s discovery last week deserves a mention. Lying close to a dry channel near where KNM-ER 1470 was found in the 1970s, this hominin femur has remained, embeded in a sandstone. A group of the crew had been walking here for several days but had failed to spot it.  The legendary hominin hunter Kamoya Kimeu used to advise the team-(and he does know) that one must search every single inch of terrain if you want to find a good bone. If you walk towards the sunrise in the morning, then you must walk back over the same ground and walk towards the sunset in the afternoon.

The hominin specimen as it was found

The excavation began and for many hours the excavators squatted next to it working away at removing the sediment leaving a pedastel ready for plastering.

Nzuve(away from camera),Robert(lying on the ground) and Nyete excavating the hominin

The fragile specimen was then plastered, and the crew could then carried it back to the car.

plastering the find; Nyete and Robert

Robert has once again distinguished himself as a fossil hunter to reckon with. His infatiguable face shows that this is not his last card!

By Lawrence Nzuve

The size of the collection is growing and this week several more amazing specimens were recovered. A crew member discovered the back of an antelope skull. When the collection team began to excavate it a complete piece of horn hore was recovered and the opposite horn core was still attached. It is the most complete specimen that has been found this field season.

The collection team took a long time to carefully excavate and apply a hardener to it.

About a kilometer away they found a massive humerus of an extinct elephant. Below you can see the large bone at the feet of a person standing beside it.

Dube standing next to the elephant humerus

This specimen was a little broken in places but with some glue and hardener it should be stuck back together successfully in the laboratory back at the Turkana Basin field station at Ileret.

The broken elephant humerus

By Lawrence Nzuve

Last week ended happily with the return of three of the team who had been working to the north of Ileret with Francis Kirera since the beginning of June. Also Dominic found a hominin molar close in a place that we had all walked past on the previous two days.

Dominic poses for the camera. Inset is the hominin molar

One of the graduate students, Ian, has also been putting together an ancient Hippo skull that he discovered. Its coming together very well.

The fieldcrew continue on their daily prospecting forays across these exposures that were once walked over by Richard Leakey’s team in the 1970’s.

The collection crew at the site where the famous KNM-ER 1470 was found

By Lawrence Nzuve

Last week one of the crew members discovered a complete primate skull completely encased in a sandstone matrix. Once cleaned this specimen should be a fabulous study specimen. It will take careful work to clean it.

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The collection team got to it the following day to record the stratigraphy and take the photographs; an on the spot photo and another one depicting the immediate surroundings before collecting it.

Dr. Fred Spoor taking a photograph of the specimen before collection.

Other good specimens were recovered this week including a fine antelope specimen which was encased in plaster of paris for transportation to the camp.

By Lawrence Nzuve

I have so far, this season, restricted myself to the topic of fossil discovery. However I want to touch on other less obvious  discoveries that we make while we are working.

The area we are currently working in, is home to some rather amazing plants. Recently a crew member pointed out to me a rather unusual shrub. On closer inspection I found that it had a rather tuberlike root. I was told that it is not edible! I have seen many tubers and a sizeable number of them are edible.

The unusual shrub with a tuber. 

This area too is rich with bushes covered in edible fruits. The one in the picture below is harvested by some of the fieldcrew on their way to the lunch tree. The tiny fruits are sweet but have very hard seeds in them which are thrown out after sucking the juice from the rest of the fruit. The local population even make juice from it!

On the subject of discoveries, the crew has also found a good spot for napping in the heat of the day after a hard mornings work.

By Lawrence Nzuve

Long walking distances brought great reward . Two “homs” were found in the first week.

A rather beautiful piece of a hominin found by Daniel Elgitei.

The specimen was found a few days before the collection team - Dr Meave Leakey, Ian Wallace from Stony Brook and Nzube -  finally got to it while doing the rounds. It was good news for everyone.
And Sale found a piece  of hominid humerus, first thing on Monday which sent the whole crew into a prospecting frenzy.

Sale had just joined us from Francis team who are working closer to Ileret and this was the first find of the season.

Sale quips, “It is just the beginning. Just watch me”.

Keep it here and stay synchronised as they say!

By Lawrence Nzuve

The field season has begun. Infact we got started at the beginning of June. The camp was been put up on the Karare escarpment close to where we will be working. This is about a two hour drive south from the Turkana Basin Institute field station at Ileret.  The camp is somewhat devoid of trees and shade however it does have a most spectacular view of the lake, the fossil exposures and the Kokoi ridge. We dont have an Internet link here so I will not be posting as frequently.

The field team is smaller this month as some of them are working to the North with Dr. Francis Kirera; a post Doctoral student with Stony Brook.

Each morning the crew have to walk quite a distance just to get to the fossil areas. It is particularly steepand rugged terrain and making a road in is not an option.

We have once again set up the bank of solar panels to keep the cameras and computers charged.

I will be writing occasional posts throughout the June-August 2008 season, hopefully with exciting news from the slopes. That is when I get back to the Ileret field station to the internet connection of course!

By Lawrence Nzuve

With the onset of the rains we have called the excavation to a close for the time being. We have got more to do on this however. We have now worked almost three full months on this site and have excavated a large area with dental picks and brushes. We did find some more little fragments of the specimen. The wet screening will now continue in the camp.

February and March are extremely hot months at Turkana and so we found some relief under the shade canopies at the sieves in the heat of the day.

We have once again secured the site with rocky barriers in the stream to try to prevent any fragments being washed away when the stream flows.

If we found any fragments of bone in the excavation then we would dutifully pack them away in secure bags and add them to our impressive collection of pieces back in camp.

We will be back in full swing again in June!

From us all Kwaheri;

Nzuve

and the team!

By Lawrence Nzuve

The Ileret Field Station is now almost a year old. We broke ground last April just before the rains. And the rains are here again. This week Richard Leakey paid us another visit to check on the progress of the buildings. He arrived in the middle of a large thunderstorm. The rains have arrived.

An almost completed building with a large shady veranda

Green roofing has now been put up over the store units and offers a large are from which rain water will be collected. Similar roofs are going up over the car port and also the dormitory block.

The large green roof over the stores

Prof. Leakey also took the time to speak with everyone in the camp. He spoke of the good work and the future prospects for employees working at the centre. He reminded everyone to respect their positions and to work hard to make this a success.

Some of the staff members listening keenly to Prof. Leakey

Construction is expected to begin after the rains on the second field station on the western side of Lake Turkana. I will update you on this on another occasion.