Students have been learning more about the animal skeleton and muscles. Bones can tell us about how muscles were attached. Muscles can tell us about what kind of movements an organisms was adapted to performing. So even with only a few key bones, we can learn a lot about an extinct animal. Teeth can reveal [...]
Today students learned the basics about human anatomy and how detailed knowledge of bones is crucial in identifying fossils. Human, or other animal fossils, are very rarely found in one piece – most often found are individual bones, bone or skull fragments, or teeth. Bones can tell us much about an organism: its age, health, [...]
The third module on Human Evolution started early. Professor Fred Grine of Stony Brook University arrived Saturday and took students on an excursion to Lake Turkana. The Turkana Basin has revealed a wealth of human fossils, and is thus also known as "the cradle of human kind". After a short truck ride students arrived [...]
The students went on their first overnight camping trip to Lothagam, a site that dates as far back as eleven million years, and contains fossils and artifacts from as little as several thousand years ago. It consists of a series of faults and outcrops formed by both a once gigantic lake, and volcanic/tectonic activity. [...]
Students really got into the Valentine’s Day spirit, making creative and imaginative gifts and cards for each other! We wish everyone a joyous day filled with love!
Students went on a day trip to Central Island, a volcanic island in the middle of Lake Turkana. After a fun and refreshing 1 hour boat ride students arrived at the island, which consists of several craters filled with water. The first lake visited is named Crocodile Lake which, you guessed it, houses a population [...]
Students learned the concept of superposition, where the oldest sediment or rock layers are on the bottom of an exposed outcrop. However, due to various forces, such as movement of the plates that make up the Earth’s crust, or changes in water bodies, the relative position of rock layers can change. Understanding geology is important [...]
The students have been learning more about the geology of the Turkana Basin. Today they learned about how layers of sediment form (stratigraphy) and what these layers can tell us about the nature of past environments. Sediments are particularly useful in telling us about the topography (profile) of landscapes and the presence of rivers, lakes or [...]