French paleoecologist Raymonde Bonnefille led TBI Field School students to Kalodirr last Friday, with hopes of finding fossil wood among the rocks. Heading farther north than on previous expeditions, Raymonde and TBI students had to hike over difficult terrain, impassable by their lorry. West of NW Kenya's Lake Turkana, the region is among [...]
Close to completing their course on the modern ecology of the Turkana Basin, students hiked to an old growth tree grove adjacent to the Turkwel River. The grove, with a massive tamarind at its center supporting orchids and monkeys, is a local site of gatherings and ceremonies, and considered holy by some. Following their exam [...]
Another update from Ileret with images and text by Fraser Smith. This is the progress report on the water pipeline and the generator house that is being built near the borehole. We had decided it best to fill the ditch once we had pumped water through the pipe and checked for leaks. In [...]
TBI's Ecology course kept Field School students busy from sunrise until sunset and beyond, as Dino Martins led students on birdwalks, collecting expeditions and late night hunts for scorpions. The landscape around TBI is filled with a fascinating array of East African birds, amphibians, and insects, all of whom took advantage of the [...]
Sweat is an abundant liquid around this neighborhood. TBI students and staff give out perhaps gallons of this stuff daily. On some Sundays we all go for a swim in lake Turkana at Eliye -a nice spot where a natural fresh water spring trickles into the saline jade sea. Last Sunday, after swimming in the [...]
Turkana Basin Institute students, faculty and staff were astonished on Wednesday when a vigorous windstorm gave way to rain. The whole ecosystem of the Turkana desert, from the smallest insects and algae to the fish, birds and great acacias depend upon annual rains. A drought has devastated the region for over 2 years now, and [...]
Dino Martins arrived at TBI over the weekend and, on Monday, began teaching a weeklong course on the ecology the the Turkana lake basin. Like much of East Africa, Turkana has been heavily affected by ecological disturbances caused by climate change and human land use patterns. To contribute to a scientific understanding of these changes, [...]
On Saturday, TBI students concluded their 2 week-long intensive course on human evolution by honoring the memory of Charles Darwin, exactly 202 years after his birth. The field of evolutionary biology has never advanced so quickly, nor been so integrated in modern and biomedical sciences as it is today. Nevertheless Darwin and his ideas remain [...]
Three decades ago a vacationing couple, while walking along the west shore of Lake Turkana, saw the back end of a human skull protruding from the sand. The cranium, or upper portion of the skull, was darkly stained and heavy from the process of fossilization, which over time had filled it with additional minerals. A [...]
The construction for the Telesgaye Primary School kitchen is now underway with the foundation complete and several courses of brick constructed. The grant was provided by the Ceres Charitable Foundation who have been supporting the infrastructural development at the school for the past two years. Sieslucho Primary School Kitchen Foundation Return to Local Community [...]
TBI Field School Students began a study of fossil preparation on Tuesday, in an effort to better understand the process by which fossil remains are made ready for scientific analysis.We are accustomed to seeing pictures of beautifully preserved fossil crania on the covers of Science, Nature or National Geographic. Most fossils are not found intact [...]
I am wary of bloggers and blogging, and have not done it much in the past. But here I am, reluctant to admit that I finally feel that I have something interesting to share with the wider TBI community and maybe the world. So here’s my first blog post from TBI Turkwel. And to those [...]
TBI has began the second phase of improving the infrastructure of Ileret Health Centre through the $29,000 grant provided by the Australian High Commission Direct Aid Program (DAP). Ileret ward water tank and gutters The DAP Grant has so far been used to put in place a water tank and gutter system for the ward, [...]
During their day off on Sunday, TBI Field School students traveled south to Turkana's Nakwaparit elementary school for a friendly game of football (soccer in American English). The Turkana name Nakwaparit describes the "flat white field" outside the school, used by students for informal football matches. Though Nakwaparit students were younger than TBI students, both [...]
Moruorot is found in the badlands north of TBI basecamp, on the west shore of Kenya's Lake Turkana. Literally meaning "Orot's Hill" in the local Turkana language, the site of Moruorot is dominated by a great hill around which lie beds of exposed and fossil-rich sediments, wearing away for the last 18 million years. Instructor [...]
TBI facilitated a two-day trip by Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation (MOPHS) officials to Ileret to build capacity of Ileret Health Centre and also carry out some health promotion programs. TBI facilitated a two-day trip by Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation (MOPHS) officials to Ileret to build capacity of Ileret Health Centre and [...]
As part of their study of the evolution of apes in East Africa, field school students visited a series of geological sites on Wednesday that have yielded fossils critical to that evolutionary history. The Lothodok (or Losodok) range extends along the western border of Lake Turkana, appearing as a series of high ridges or low [...]
Due to the remoteness of Ileret and the expense of transporting building materials is very costly. Therefore new techniques are to be employed in the buildings on this side of the lake to try to reduce costs. One approach is to use concrete waffles that are made from a mould for the roofing of the [...]
I have a few recent images of the large laboratory that is under construction at Turkwel. The basement which will be used as storage area, is now complete and the large slab has mostly been laid. The wall on the ground floor will be the constructed next. I have a few recent images of the [...]
Turkana Basin Institute Field School students now begin an intensive two week course studying paleoanthropology, with a focus on East Africa and the Turkana Basin in particular. Led by instructor Cara Roure Johnson of the University of Connecticut, with guest lectures by Meave Leakey, students have begun a study human and vertebrate osteology, and primate [...]