Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project - HSPDP

05/06/2022

Review of HSPDP and other drilling projects just out in Annual Reviews!

Paleoanthropologists have long speculated about the role of environmental change in shaping human evolution in Africa. In recent years, drill cores of late Neogene lacustrine sedimentary rocks have yielded valuable high-resolution records of climatic and ecosystem change. Eastern African Rift sedime...

01/10/2021

Congratulations to our HSPDP colleagues with recent publications so far this year!

Walter Duesing et al. (2021). Multiband wavelet age modeling for a ~293 m (~600 kyr) sediment core from Chew Bahir Basin, southern Ethiopian Rift. Frontiers in Earth Science.

Veronica Muiruri et al. (2021) A million year vegetation history and palaeoenvironmental record from the Lake Magadi Basin, Kenya Rift Valley Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

Kennie Leet et al. (2021). Labyrinth patterns in Magadi (Kenya) cherts: Evidence for early formation from siliceous gels. Geology. 33 Leet et al 2021 Geology

Daniel Gebregiorgis et al. Modern Sedimentation and authigenic mineral formation in the Chew Bahir Basin. Frontiers in Earth Science.

Stephanie Kaboth-Bahr et al (2021). Paleo-ENSO influence on African environments and early modern humans. Proc. National Acad. Science

Frank Schaebitz et al. (2021). Hydroclimate changes in eastern Africa over the past 200,000 years may have influenced early human dispersal. Communications Earth & Environment.

Helen Roberts et al. (2021), Using multiple
chronometers to establish a long, directly-dated lacustrine record: Constraining >600,000 years of
environmental change at Chew Bahir, Ethiopia. Quaternary Science Reviews.

Gabriele Arnold et al. (2021), Advanced Hyperspectral Analysis of Sediment Core Samples from the Chew Bahir Basin, Ethiopian Rift, in the Spectral Range from 0.25 to 17µm: Support for Climate Proxy Interpretation. Frontiers in Earth Science.

Martin Trauth et al. (2021), Northern Hemisphere Glaciation, African climate and human evolution. Quaternary Science Reviews.

Chad Yost et al. (2021), Orbital Influence on
Precipitation, Fire, and Grass Community Composition From 1.87 to 1.38Ma in the Turkana Basin, Kenya. Frontiers in Earth Science.

Dan Deocampo et al. (2021), Orbital control of Pleistocene euxinia in Lake Magadi, Kenya. Geology

Matt Grove (2021) Climate change and climate variability: An objective decomposition. Quaternary Science Reviews

29/10/2020

Congratulations to our colleague Jim Russell, who is the winner of the 2020 AGU Dansgaard Award!

27/09/2020

Congratulations to Rachel Lupien and colleagues for their new paper "Abrupt climate change and its influences on hominin evolution during the early Pleistocene in the Turkana Basin, Kenya" published in Quaternary Science Reviews! This is publication #26 of HSPDP.

23/05/2020

Congratulations to Georgia State University PhD student Francis Muchemi, who has been awarded a competitive $1500 student research grant from the Geological Society of America for his proposal titled "Middle Pleistocene Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of Southern Kenya Rift Based on Mineralogy and Geochemistry of a Continental Drill Core"!

Francis will use the funds to support his equipment and analytical laboratory costs, as he continues analysis of the Olorgesailie Drilling Project cores recovered by the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program and the National Museums of Kenya, where he holds the title of Research Scientist. Francis' work is contributing to our understanding of climate and environmental change over the past million years, and how it affected human evolution.

21/05/2020

Congratulations Chad Yost and colleagues for the publication of their new paper "Phytoliths, pollen, and microcharcoal from the Baringo Basin, Kenya reveal savanna dynamics during the Plio-Pleistocene transition" just published in Palaeogeo., Palaeoclim. Palaeoecol!

07/05/2020

The film from HSPDP/CBP Artist Julian Ruddock’s Earth Core 2A exhibition is online at https://broto.eco/2a-earth-core-film/
as part of an online art-science conference https://broto.eco/. More of his Earth Core images at https://cargocollective.com/artscienceclimatechange

30/04/2020

Congratulations to our colleague Kay Behrensmeyer, who has been elected to the US National Academy of Sciences!

2020 NAS Election

21/01/2020

Congratulations to John E. Kutzbach and coauthors Jian Guan, Feng He, Andrew S. Cohen, Ian J. Orland, and Guangshan Chen for their new paper
“African climate response to orbital and glacial forcing in 140,000-y simulation with implications for early modern human environments”, which has just been published in PNAS. doi/10.1073/pnas.1917673117. This is Publication #23 of HSPDP.

21/11/2019

Verena Foerster, Christian Zeeben and Annette Junginger are co-editing a special article collection for the open access journal Frontiers in Earth Science, on:
Integrating Paleoclimate, Stratigraphy, Sedimentology & Paleontology in Human Evolution and Dispersal Studies - from Early Hominines to the Holocene
Please see the link below for details.

What role did climate dynamics play in human evolution, the dispersal of Homo sapiens within and beyond the African continent, and key cultural innovations? Were dry spells, stable humid conditions, or rapid climate fluctuations the main driver of human evolution and migration? In order to evaluate....

24/10/2019

Congratulations to Rachel Lupien and coauthors Jim Russell, Chad Yost, John Kingston, Al Deino, Jon Logan, Anna Schuh, and Andy Cohen for their new paper "Vegetation change in the Baringo Basin, East Africa across the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation 3.3–2.6 Ma" which has just been accepted for publication in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimtology, Palaeoecology! This is publication #22 of HSPDP

28/09/2019