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(L to R) Nyete, Nina Jablonski, Nasser, Maina,
and Nzube preview a digital image of a newly discovered hominid, yet to
be excavated. "Time on the ground and in the field," as well as
persistence and a keen eye, are prerequisites for finding hominid
fossils. |
MORE PHOTOS
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WEEK 5 |
Text and photographs by Louise
Leakey |
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A peek inside the hominid box with three labeled specimens. |
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acking and labeling of all the collected specimens
continued this last weekend and we have three boxes of
fossils to send back to the National Museum in
Nairobi. All fossils collected in Kenya are housed in
the Nairobi Museum, where scientists come from all
over the world to study them. The hominid specimens
are housed in a special wooden box while we are in the
field.
It is important to keep up with the collecting as best
as we can. Somehow we never have enough time in a
field season to collect everything that is found. It
would be ideal if we could have a team of people here
all year round. This is what the Koobi Fora Research
Project is hoping to achieve but we still lack
sufficient funding to do this. We continue to rely on
research grants from the National Geographic Society
and contributions from interested and generous
philanthropic donors and family foundations. These
contributions we greatly appreciate as they make such
a big difference to the success of our work. The
Leakey Foundation is NOT our family foundation, a
common misconception. They have provided us with small
research grants more recently and this year, in
commemoration of my grandfather’s birth 100 years ago,
a dinner was held to raise funds for our fieldwork as
part of their centennial celebrations. The National
Geographic Society and Leakey Foundation both receive
tax-deductible donations on our behalf to help with
our operating costs.
Time on the ground and in the field is most important,
as this is the only way that we will find those
fossils! Without the fossils we really cannot
convincingly work out the relationships between the
different hominids and the palaeoenvironment and
habitat in which they evolved. It is exciting to think
that each fossil that is found might be another clue
to unraveling the complex evolutionary puzzle.
Several more good specimens including a long legged
bird, several monkeys including a very complete
mandible. But the
good news is that Robert and Kyalo both found
partial hominid teeth which
will have to be sieved. The sieving work is piling up
fast!
Several hominid specimens were collected from this
area in 1977 and the remains of old sieving piles and
more metal tags can be found. It is clearly a richly
fossiliferous area. Walking back to the car Nasser
found a piece of cranium, which looked as if it could
have come from younger sediments, as it had a very
yellow colouration. On checking the geology however
this too is old. It is fairly weathered and is
unlikely to turn out more of this specimen. We must
sieve it though.
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Nasser shows his hominid fossil to Nzube. |
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But that was not all, for the following day! Nasser
found another hominid; a half palate of what is likely
to be a female australopithecine, which has small
anterior roots and large posterior teeth. It has a
very worn P3 and the roots for M1 and M2 are visible
too. It is indeed turning into a wonderfully exciting
season. What a great team we have working this year!
Morale is high and everyone is enjoying themselves.
Nina found a
giant otter molar which is quite rare and
so is another very important specimen. This animal might have weighed some 40lb
and probably fed on the fresh water river oysters and
vegetation.
The lake that formed on the big airstrip after the
rain at the beginning of this season is finally
beginning to dry up and the runway is visible again.
We had to charter an aircraft to bring in fresh
produce and supplies at the end of the week. This
plane was also able to drop off the programme officer
from AMREF who is in charge of the renovation of the
health clinic and training of local health personnel
as part of a community project that I have been
working on over this last year. I will write a
separate dispatch on the Ileret Community projects.
The plane also flew out with Nasser on board, back to
Nairobi, as sadly he has to leave the field to return
to America to continue with his Ph.D. studies at
Binghamton University. He has been a tremendous help
in the field and found two hominids in the short time
he has been here. That is a real success! The day that
Nasser left for Nairobi was an incredible day and it
was a pity he was not there. A femur that Stephen
found turned out to be that of a Colobine monkey; it
was very complete and would have been a lovely as a
hominid. Robert has some hominid skull
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Hunters congratulate Nyete on his discovery. |
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fragments, but
very weathered and have clearly been on the surface
for a long time. But the find of the week was Nyete’s.
In the middle of the morning he called us over and
showed us a beautiful little mandible lying on the
surface, mostly concealed by coarse sandstone. It is a
juvenile mandible with its baby teeth and newly
erupted first molars. And as we walked back to the car
Nina picked up a well-preserved piece of occipital. It
has lots of surface detail. It was by a cairn and
Justus said he had in fact found it the previous day.
This makes Hominid number 12 of the season!
Every evening we try to take a few minutes before
dinner to enjoy the
night sky and the rising moon.
The stars are so
bright here as we are so far away from any large centres of human habitation. We watch satellites
crossing the sky. Shooting stars blaze the sky all
night long, some of them with great streaks of fire
behind them. As Meave went to bed one evening she saw
an unusual “moon bow” over North Island in the lake.
It must have been to do with the increased humidity.
It seems that rain clouds are building up again.
Louise Leakey,
Koobi Fora
February, 2004
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PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The Koobi Fora Research Project annual
paleoanthropological expedition. |
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LOCATION:
The area surrounding Lake Turkana, in the
extreme north of Kenya. This region is
extremely rich in hominid fossils and has
produced some of the oldest dates for Homo.
Launch
Position Locator. |
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PURPOSE:
To increase knowledge of the origins of our
genus, Homo, and the context in which
we evolved. |
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