First and foremost, a belated Happy Mardi Gras! The Students and the TA make impromptu masks for Mardi Gras. Our athletes have been very busy these past weeks studying hard and doing research for their modules. But, as all good athletes, they have made time for their training sessions (even if this required [...]
We are now down to the last two modules of this Spring's field school. It's been a wonderful journey so far; and the students have now been joined by Dr. Sonia Harmand, who is teaching the penultimate module - Archaeology. On Monday, the students learned what archaeology is all about and discussed the ultimate question: [...]
Last Spring semester Dr. Fortelius, Dr. Meave Leakey and the TBI students initiated a simple taphonomy experiment. They started off with the exciting task of smashing Mary Leakey's crockery into small pieces, which were then buried at different levels within the TBI compound. Here is the link to the blog post: http://www.turkanabasin.org/2013/03/paleontology-off-to-a-smashing-start/. Taphonomy is the study [...]
Earlier last week Dr. Fortelius took the students down to the basement to look at the many specimens that have been collected over the year and to do some group tasks. TBI has an ever growing faunal collection with an amazing number of different East African species, which is great for comparative studies with fossils. Task [...]
Yesterday, the students learned about the history of life on Earth from the formation of the first micro organisms in the oceans, to the emergence of the first plants, dinosaurs and mammals. Their task for the afternoon was to use their newly acquired knowledge to reconstruct a large scale timeline of the Earth's history using [...]
As the Winter Olympics get well under-way in Russia, the TBI students have also embraced the sporting spirit and have organized their very own Olympic games here in Turkana. As with many great ideas, the students had this inspirational moment sitting around the dinner table one warm Turkana evening... And then the great idea turned [...]
The Spring 2014 Field School Vertebrate Paleontology module began this week with Prof. Mikael Fortelius who travelled to Turkana from Finland. Students are being introduced to the diversity and evolution of vertebrates in the Turkana Basin as well as the basic methods involved in searching for, documenting and collecting fossils in the field. This morning [...]
The next morning the students woke up at dawn, and after a simple breakfast, they set out for a long hike along the Nawata river bed and up the hills to the waterhole in the southern end of Lothagam. On the way, Abdi took the students to see a handaxe he had found the previous [...]
On Thursday, Dr. Feibel and guest professor Dr. Bob Raynolds, took the students on a geology camping trip to Lothagam, situated a few kilometres south of the Institute. Dr. Raynolds looking at the stratigraphy of a sandbar in the Turkwel River. Lothagam is an important site for geologists, palaeontologists, anthropologists and archaeologists because [...]
On Sunday after breakfast, the Field School students climbed into the lorry for a 20 minute ride. Their destination: The Nakwaperit Primary School where they had been invited to play a fun and friendly football match against the local students. After hearing about the defeat of the previous field school in a match during the [...]
It's Thrusday of the first week of the Geology module. So far, the students have learnt about the Geological History of the Turkana Basin, as well as some of the basics of Geology, from the principles of sedimentation to the classification and formation of different types of rocks and minerals. The first field trip of [...]
The Turkana ecosystem is home to a wide range of species, including many different kinds of insects. One of the challenges of understanding biodiversity is the fact that many species have not yet been classified, and are in general poorly known or studied. This is true for most of the remote, tropical areas of the [...]
To mark the end of the week and the beginning of the Geology module Dr. Martins, joined by geology professor Dr. Craig Feibel, took the students on a boat trip to Central Island. This is the middle island of Lake Turkana, which houses three spectacular crater lakes - Flamingo Lake, Crocodile Lake, and Tilapia Lake. [...]
After a fun but intense week, the Ecology module draws to an end with the student project presentations. In this session the students were honoured by the presence of a surprise guest - Dr. Richard Leakey. Carolina, Erica, Lauren, Abdi, Sarah and Janina give their presentations. Everyone did a fantastic job. Here are some [...]
For the past week the students have been working extremely hard collecting data for their research projects. Angela, Carolina, Janina, Kailie, Lauren, Robyn and Tiffany are in the Vectors Team, where they are exploring various themes surrounding malaria and mosquitoes, from the use of counterfeit drugs to the conditions that influence mosquito larvae survivability. [...]
Over the weekend the students got the opportunity to explore further afield with two trips South of TBI. On Saturday morning, after an hour's drive through the arid landscape and villages with smiling, waving children, the students arrived at the lush Kerio Delta. Setting off... Turkana children waving as we pass through [...]
We're now reaching the end of the first week of the field school and the students have been having a great time! They have also been working very hard, planning and writing their research proposals for the Ecology module. There are two main themes for this semester - Mosquitoes and Malaria; and the use Doum [...]
After a lecture on malaria, mosquitoes, and other common diseases and their carriers, the students headed down to the river for a practical on the identification of mosquito larvae and pupae. We were joined by a National Geographic film crew and the students were very excited. Female mosquitos lay their eggs in water, where they [...]
On Monday the Field School kicked-off with an introductory lecture on ecology and evolution given by Dr. Dino Martins. For the next two weeks the students will be learning about the flora, fauna and ecology of the Turkana Basin region, from the life cycles of different insect species and the diseases they can transmit, to [...]
The Spring 2014 Turkana Basin Institute Field School has begun! TBI Spring 2014 Field School Students! We started our journey of discovery at Lake Elementeita in the Great Rift Valley where we took an evening walk along the lakeshore. We got to see how incredibly high the lakes are - as lots of [...]