Nom nom nom…
Origins Field School students don’t have to worry about what's for dinner, as we are provided with healthy and delicious food every day. But what is on the menu for other animals? How can we use them to infer the diet of their fossil relatives?
Earth’s history unrolled
Where does the world come from is one of the most fascinating questions people have asked for thousands of years. Needless to say, the [...]
In search of old bones
In the Geology module of the Origins field school, student learned about the earth’s history and how this history is recorded in the layers [...]
“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads”
To put their geology skills to the test, students set out to make a geological map of area 1, which is near our home [...]
How muddy business turns into discoveries
In our last episode of geologic endeavor, students learned about the two dominating sedimentary systems of the Turkana Basin: the river system and the [...]
A Window Into The Rocks
Our first module came to an end, which unfortunately meant it was time to say goodbye to Dino and his adorable field assistant Barabara. Ecology [...]
Cheetah at Mpala Research Centre
Origins Field School students observe cheetah at Mpala Research Centre in central Kenya. Studying the wildlife of a modern East African savanna ecosystem provides [...]
Our New Home, Ileret.
We are now in Ileret, which is on the east side of Lake Turkana. We will be here for 7 weeks of the field [...]
Cheetahs and Rhinos and Dogs, Oh My!
During our last few days at Mpala, the students were immersed in the unique wild life and vegetation of Laikipia. Professor Dino Martins, director [...]
African Wild Dogs at Mpala Research Centre
Our Origins Field School students observe a pack of African wild dogs at Mpala Research Centre in the Laikipia region of central Kenya. [...]
African wild dogs at Mpala Research Centre
Origins Field School students observe a pack of African wild dogs at Mpala Research Centre.
Students take the field for ecology
After a few days of getting settled into their routine at Mpala research center, the students were ready to begin their first module: Ecology. [...]
Hippos at Mpala Research Centre
Students of the Turkana Basin Institute Origins Field School observe a Hippo pod at Mpala Research Centre in central Kenya. Part [...]
TBI Origins Field School Spring 2017 Begins!
Welcome to the Turkana Basin Institute field school blog Spring 2017! As the Resident Academic Director for the field school, I will be accompanying [...]
Fall 2016 Field School ends 🙁
This past semester has been one to remember. The students learned about the Ecology of the Turkana Basin, being able to identify all the [...]
Stony Brook professor publishes stone tool book
Stony Brook University professor John J. Shea recently published a new work through Cambridge University Press entitled Stone Tools in Human Evolution: Behavioral Differences among [...]
Becoming a master knapper
After returning to TBI from an exciting camping trip, we spent the afternoon relaxing and knapping! We used the raw material we had collected [...]
Trip to Nariokotome
We left TBI Turkwel Monday morning for our camping trip, from which we would be returning on Wednesday afternoon. We would be camping for [...]
Rolling back to the Holocene
On Friday, we traveled to the Holocene site of Napaget, a massive and artefact-rich sand dune that overlooks the beautiful Lake Turkana. The site [...]
Afternoon Knaps
The next morning in class, we were introduced to archaeological vocabulary, necessary to accurately understand and describe stone artefacts. We learned how to describe the [...]