In June of 2023 the West Turkana Paleo Project, led by Dr. Fredrick Manthi Kaylo, returns to a very special site in the Kibish region of Turkana. Here the remains of some of the earliest anatomically modern humans have been discovered, dating back approximately 200,000 years. Our project on Science In Practice is following the field team with multiple cameras, seeking comprehensive documentation of the expedition. Please follow our daily updates!
Dr Fredrik Kyalo Manthi introduces the expedition to find the earliest humans!
Introducing Mike Plavcan and what they’re doing up there in Kibish.
Nick Blegen works with the paleo project to understand the geology of the area, collect ancient tools, and provide dates for the finds.
The West Turkana Paleo Project is honored to host some of the best fossil finders in Africa. They scan the exposures for fossilized bone, hominid fossils being the most valuable. This season Patrick has already found three!
The first screen for each fossil is what the finder sees. But he sees a ton of different objects on the surface. Can you find it? Each successive view is closer, until the fossil is very evident. It takes practice!
Collecting fossils at Lomekwi.
Camp Meal in Kibish
Dating is never easy, is it?
How else could you date someone 300,000 years old?
Melissa dates tuffs of volcanic rock at Lomekwi
Who’s interested in science anyway? Nick tells how he just got interested in older and older stuff, playing in dirt and numbers!
Mike Plavcan summarizes the field season.
Leaving Kibish the day the field season ends, the team has collected 290 fossils, a phenomenal take. Of course, nothing is smooth and there is naturally some local automative expertise required at the last minute–and a vehicle stuck in a dry lake bed.
Kibish village is near the one of the main sites of the West Turkana Paleo Project. Many of the exposures yield fossils from one quarter million years ago. The recent find of a nearly intact human skull from approximately 230,000 years ago is especially important because of the diversity of other species in the same area.
Nick shows us how to date ancient soils by examining their layers and seeing where the “bones and stones” are located.
