Research

The Turkana Basin encompasses Africa’s largest desert lake, a wilderness of rugged beauty. It is populated by Kenyan and Ethiopian pastoral communities that herd livestock and live a traditional life untouched by modern conveniences. Ancient sediments, laid down over millions of years, have preserved vignettes of the past. From them we can piece together our evolutionary story and that of the many other animals that lived alongside our ancestors.

While Turkana is far from the major cities that dominate today’s global economy, it is central to the human story. The Turkana Basin holds the world’s richest record of human prehistory, and a fossil heritage that stretches back over 100 million years, into the age of the dinosaurs. Sediments brought into the lake basin buried our own ancestors–who made Turkana their home. More recent faulting and erosion have brought this evidence of human prehistory to the surface, where it awaits discovery.