Origins Field School

Turkwel here we come!

On our last week of the Human Evolution module Professor Tracy Kivell led the students out to Area 13 where they would be tracking down two hippo humeri to plaster and they would see the site where hominin fossils were found in 2015! The students also go to partake in a hill crawl; which consists [...]

2019-03-20T21:53:18+03:00March 20th, 2019|Field Schools, General, Origins Field School, Spring 2019|Comments Off on Turkwel here we come!

A journey through human evolution

During the past week the field school has been tracing back the origins of our own species with the Human Evolution module led by Dr. Tracy Kivell! Our days have been divided into morning lectures and afternoon lab sessions and so far we’ve covered skeletal anatomy, origins of bipedalism, and the very intricate story of [...]

2019-03-12T10:56:36+03:00March 12th, 2019|Field Schools, General, Origins Field School, Spring 2019|Comments Off on A journey through human evolution

The World Through the Eyes of a Paleontologist

The students started off the week being introduced to their newest professor, Dr. Mikael Fortelius, a professor at the University of Helsinki, who will be teaching the Vertebrate Paleontology module. Dr. Mikael Fortelius! (Photo: Petra Peretin) They were introduced to the research labs at Illeret and had the opportunity to look at the [...]

2019-03-03T22:42:11+03:00March 3rd, 2019|Field Schools, General, Origins Field School, Spring 2019|Comments Off on The World Through the Eyes of a Paleontologist

A “Tuff” Act to Follow

At the start of the week the students spent the morning in their three groups heading back out to the MFB (Main Fish Beds) with their geology professors to Areas 3, 6, and 6A. During the afternoon, Dr. Greg Henkes gave a lecture on carbon, oxygen and nitrogen isotopes, which can be used to both [...]

2019-03-01T15:54:41+03:00February 19th, 2019|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2019|Comments Off on A “Tuff” Act to Follow

Rocks and Sediments: A lesson in time travel

The Geology of the Turkana Basin course taught by Dr. Craig Feibel, Dr. Bob Reynolds and Dr. Greg Henkes started last Monday at TBI Ileret! The Origins Field School students explore Area 6A. Photo: Lucía Nadal We’ve been going out on many geological walks taking us back in time millions of years to [...]

2019-02-12T04:14:18+03:00February 12th, 2019|Field Schools, General, Origins Field School, Spring 2019|Comments Off on Rocks and Sediments: A lesson in time travel

Farewell Mpala, Hello Ileret!

This week the students traveled further North to Illeret on the East side of Lake Turkana! Saying goodbye to Mpala, the students embark on a new adventure as they continue their ecology course with Dr. Martins. With a new and vast environment to explore, the students have the opportunity to take in the beauty and [...]

2019-02-04T16:47:46+03:00February 3rd, 2019|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2019|Comments Off on Farewell Mpala, Hello Ileret!

Adventures at Mpala!

This week was as busy as it was exciting for the students! Dr. Martins and the students collecting Anopheles mosquito larvae (Photo Credit: Lucia Nadal) They started their week with Dr. Duncan Kimuyu, a researcher at Mpala who is a part of the long term exclosure experiment. This experiment consists of several sections [...]

2019-01-29T21:29:25+03:00January 29th, 2019|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2019|Comments Off on Adventures at Mpala!

Students arrive in Kenya for Spring 2019 Origins Field School

Jambo and welcome to the Spring 2019 TBI Origins Field School! My name is Lucia Nadal and I am the Resident Academic Director for this program. Together with our TA, Petra Peretin, I will be accompanying the students throughout the next ten weeks, making sure that they have an unforgettable learning experience. The students arrived [...]

2019-09-13T10:38:56+03:00January 21st, 2019|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2019|Comments Off on Students arrive in Kenya for Spring 2019 Origins Field School

The Field School’s Final Weeks: Archaeology, Goat Butchery and Graduation!

The students were very busy in our last two weeks in Kenya. The Archaeology module took us to many sites around Turkana where there have been important paleontological and archaeological finds or where there is exciting current research. The students walked the Turkana outcrops in search of bones, stone tools and pottery. Through their studies [...]

2018-04-25T16:23:02+03:00April 25th, 2018|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2018|Comments Off on The Field School’s Final Weeks: Archaeology, Goat Butchery and Graduation!

Practising Archaeology

Photo: Esther Kadaga Our journey through the Archaeology module is coming to an end. We had a few site visits this week and one of the activities the students got to do was archaeological surveys.  Archaeological surveys are useful in helping archaeologists to identify where best to excavate. The field team scans the [...]

2018-03-31T12:12:42+03:00March 31st, 2018|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2018|Comments Off on Practising Archaeology

Stone tools and the Nariokotome camping trip

Stone tools which were a vital technological invention of early humans, enabling them to do things like butchering. Oldowan and Acheulean stone tool technologies were collectively prevalent for millions of years; now it was time for our modern day students to try their hand at reliving their ancient ancestors' ways of life. On Monday Dr. [...]

2018-03-26T11:14:09+03:00March 25th, 2018|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2018|Comments Off on Stone tools and the Nariokotome camping trip

Tracing our Ancestry

This Week, the students have been introduced to the story of being and becoming human. The scientific story of human evolution. Humans have always been curious to identify who they really are which poses questions like; how and why are we different from other mammals? What made us develop distinct traits like bipedality and bigger [...]

2022-05-26T10:20:51+03:00March 10th, 2018|Field Schools, General, Origins Field School, Spring 2018|Comments Off on Tracing our Ancestry

Studying Vertebrate Paleontology in Turkana

The students are now well into the Vertebrate Paleontology course with Dr. Bill Sanders from the University of Michigan. Professor Sanders has been teaching the students how to interpret the skeleton and teeth of animals in order to understand how they lived. You can understand a lot about an animal based on its bones. The [...]

2018-03-05T14:10:04+03:00March 1st, 2018|Field Schools, General, Origins Field School, Spring 2018|Comments Off on Studying Vertebrate Paleontology in Turkana

Visit to Ileret Town

A Dasenach village. Photo: Rosie Bryson The students visited a village in Ileret and got to know more about the culture of the local Dasenach people. The Dasenach are a pastoralist community living in Marsabit County within the Turkana region. One of the things the students learned was the division of labour within [...]

2018-02-25T20:03:57+03:00February 24th, 2018|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2018|Comments Off on Visit to Ileret Town

Performing Geologic Autopsies and More

  In the last week, we have been delving deeper into the geology of the Turkana Basin. This included seeking to understand how stratigraphic units (distinct layers of soil piled on top of each other which represent different time periods) are formed and how to interpret individual sedimentary strata’s  in order to reconstruct past environments. [...]

2018-02-20T10:50:44+03:00February 18th, 2018|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2018|Comments Off on Performing Geologic Autopsies and More

Reading the Rocks in the Cradle of Humanity

Our Geology module with Dr. Craig Feibel and Dr. Robert Raynolds continues at the TBI campus! Dr. Feibel started off the week with an introduction to the different rock “species” found in the Rift Valley. The students have been working hard to memorize more than 20 different types of rock, as well as state it’s [...]

2018-02-13T08:14:52+03:00February 13th, 2018|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2018|Comments Off on Reading the Rocks in the Cradle of Humanity

A Journey through Time in Sediments

Photo: Deming Yang The ecology module has ended. The next module, Geology, has started. Dr Craig Feibel and Dr. Bob Raynolds  are the instructors taking the students through the geological history of the Turkana Basin. The students are spending time in the lab learning about rocks. They are also going out into the [...]

2018-02-12T10:13:44+03:00February 9th, 2018|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2018|Comments Off on A Journey through Time in Sediments

Adjusting to the Heat

Since their arrival at TBI-Ileret, students have continued to expand their understanding of ecological research methods. Here, they have also been introduced to new TAs, the Dassenatch people, and more heat than they were accustomed to at Mpala. They all are adjusting really well to this new environment which is great since this will be [...]

2018-02-05T11:57:06+03:00February 4th, 2018|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2018|Comments Off on Adjusting to the Heat
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