This Sunday, Field School students took advantage of the day off with a trip to Central Island, an island in (you guessed it) the center of Lake Turkana. Both Dr. Martins and Dr. Lepre were on hand to offer ecological and geological expertise. The day started off bright and early with a walk across the [...]
We have just finished the first week of the Field School's geology module, taught by Dr. Chris Lepre of Rutgers University. Studying geology means lots of time spent out in the field and the students began with a lab exercise examining local stratigraphy (rock layers). TBI-Turkwel sits on the Nachukui Formation, famous for its rich [...]
Richard Leakey made headlines around the world in 1989 when a stockpile of 12 tons of ivory was burned in Nairobi National Park. This media event was orchestrated by Leakey, then Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, to raise awareness of the massive poaching problem from which Kenya was suffering at the time, and [...]
The TBI Fall 2014 Field School students visited a livestock boma (enclosure) this past week to learn more about goats, grazing and the ecology of livestock in this arid environment. Goats are the main form of livestock kept in this part of the world and an important part of the local economy and culture. [...]
During the Field School, students have class Monday through Saturday, with Sundays off for rest and relaxation. Often, Dr. Martins will organize Sunday activities for those students who crave a little more excitement on their day off. Last Sunday morning, all fifteen Field School students, plus several members of the TBI staff, headed to nearby [...]
On 26-27 September 2014 at Toulouse, France, in the symposium The African Human Fossil Record. This public event, open to researchers and students in paleoanthropology and prehistory as well as to the nonprofessional audience, will present thirteen talks provided by eminent specialists discussing the ancestry, life-history, diet, behavior, and other aspects of early Homo. The panel [...]
The TBI Field School students visited the Kerio Delta a few days ago to get a first glimpse of the complex freshwater ecology and dynamics that affect the deltas of Lake Turkana. We were hosted by a group of local fishermen whose boats we used to travel into the mouth of the Kerio Delta. [...]
Hello from TBI-Turkwel! Monday marked the start of classes in the first module of the Fall 2014 TBI Field School, Ecology of the Turkana Basin, taught by Dr. Dino Martins. So far, students have learned about African savanna biodiversity, coevolution, mimicry, Rift Valley biogeography, vector biology, plant/pollinator interactions, evolutionary stable strategies, and lots more. Many [...]
The Turkana Basin Institute's Origins Field School started off this week with the students exploring the African Savannah and meeting some of the amazing creatures that call this ecosystem home. We were very lucky to spend three days at Mpala Ranch in Laikipia where we had some incredible sightings of wildlife, while learning about the [...]
The Turkana Basin Institute's Fall 2014 Origins Field School has begun. Students arrived in Kenya on the 4th and travelled up to Mpala Ranch yesterday. It was a wet, rainy day - but we did get to see some amazing wildlife on the way to the campsite, including giraffe and elephant. A Reticulated Giraffe [...]
The twelfth annual Stony Brook Human Evolution Workshop was held at the Turkana Basin Institute’s (TBI) Turkwel research facility, between August 5-9th, 2014. The workshop was organized to mark the 50th Anniversary of the publication by Louis Leakey, Phillip Tobias and John Napier of the paper that established Homo habilis as a taxon (Leakey, L. S. [...]
The TBI mobile clinic is a stakeholder in the provision of health care services to the people of Ileret location/ward. The team engages in a number of activities and the mobile clinic staff contribute largely to health care provision. The general health care provision constitute a large portion of the team’s work, however rescue services [...]
The Turkana Basin Institute has, since its inception of the community outreach program, been supporting needy but bright students in high school from both Turkana east and west. This year alone, the bursary scheme has seen 18 students from the illeret community supported in various secondary schools. Aside from the students, TBI is currently paying [...]
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the announcement of Homo habilis, TBI will host the SBU/TBI Human Evolution Workshop XII, entitled “50 years of Homo habilis,” at its Turkwel facility on August 5-10. Published in 1964 in the scientific journal Nature, this workshop will re-examine some of the main claims made in that paper in light [...]
The Peking Man site at Zhoukoudian and the fossil remains uncovered there continue to be a source of evolutionary fascination. The disappearance of these fossils en route from China to the American Museum of Natural History in 1941 has added to the mystery. While China’s contribution to our understanding of primate and human evolution has [...]
The last event, and almost certainly the one everyone was looking forward to was the Rhythmic Dancing and Singing. This event was different from all the others because the athletes would not only be judged on their skill, but, more importantly, their creativity. And of course, for this, we had three experienced judges - Dr. [...]
During the Human Evolution module the students also got the chance to go on a number of field trips. The first was to the sites of Kalodirr and Losodok where Dr. Skinner set them the challenge of finding a Miocene Ape. The students begin their search of the outcrops. Kalodirr is dated to [...]
Last week marked the beginning of the last module of the Spring 2014 Field School - Human Evolution, taught by Dr. Matt Skinner from University College London. The module kicked off with a journey through the history of palaeoanthropology from the first fossils discovered to important scientific breakthroughs that enabled early scientists to start piecing [...]
On Thursday, after having collected all the raw materials during the Nariokotome trip, it was time for our young hominins to test their knapping skills and prove their worth to the Oldowan community. But before we started, the students made a short trip just outside the compound to collect some quartz pebbles to use as [...]
Day 1 On Thursday, the students set off an a camping adventure to Nariokotome. The truck and the pick-up were packed with bed-rolls, tents, cooking equipment,wash-tubs, and enough food to feed a small army of archaeology students for the next three days. The students also made their own preparations, taking notebooks, academic articles and a [...]