KFRP Blog
| 10 November 2009
While some of the crew have been wet sieving the sediments recovered from the last field season, others have been doing specimen preparation. There are numerous large specimens, most of them in plaster that were recovered from the field over that past few years. Christopher Kiarie, an expert preparator from the National Museums of Kenya has been stationed at Ileret, training the preparators over the past few months. Some of them have now learnt to use the microscopes for the more delicate preparation work. Once the specimens are prepared they are more easily studied. Trainees will get the chance to look at the fossils a second time after they have been collected and identified properly. working on the fossils in the lab also greatly improves fieldwork identification skills. The crew members take turns in preparation so that each one of them becomes an all round expert. In addtiion with all the specimens that need preparation it means that the crew are guaranteed year round employment.
The compressor that drives the airscribes and dental drills that used to remove the sand stone and hard matrix from the fossils, is run using energy generated by wind and solar power. Once the specimens are cleaned they are sorted by taxa and stored in the laboratory.
Crew members Elgite(above) cleaning an antelope skull using magnifying glasses and Apollo (below) using the microscope while he cleans a smaller specimen.
| 22 October 2009
Lawrence Nzuve
After the short break after the field season, some members of the crew are back to work to continue with the wet sieving. A large quantity of sediment was painstakingly carried back to the TBI Ileret field station at the end of the field season from the excavation sites.
Aike (foreground) and John Lonyericho at work: sediment is first soaked and then washed
The washed sediment is dried in the sun for a while and then it is put back into the screens to go through again slowly, looking for any small fossil fragments. Anything that is found is put into the sample bags and are clearly marked with such details as the field number of the specimen, the area where the specimen was discovered and the part of the body eg maxilla, tooth etc. Experienced scientists go through the bits from the sample bags carefully. Very occasionally additional fragments are found that fit with the original specimen.
Aike (left) and Arbolo going through the dried sediment looking for fossil fragemtns: this work needs both patience and concentration
| 07 September 2009
We close this season very content knowing that it has been a success. Its been exciting with several good discoveries made by several members of the field crew but as a result we spent longer on the sieves than finding new fossils. The sieving is hot work especially in the afternoons. We sit by the screens in the hot sun looking for little fragments of fossil in the screens. The good thing about sieving a site is that we often recover the bones of many smaller things such as rodents and birds, frogs and this year we also found several crab claws from the dir of Nyetes site pictured below.
So now we have a good collection of specimens, many of which are currently being cleaned and prepared in the laboratory at TBI ileret. We have taken a break now as eveyone needs a quick visit with their families before more time in the field. It is now time for taking stock of our discoveries.
The large sieve area at Nyete's hominid site
Thank you all for following our progress and for your support.
I will post updates from the laboratory at Illeret and again when we are out in the field.
The crew says Kwaheri for now.
| 09 August 2009
With the discovery, documenting and collecting of the hominin finds completed, each site now has to be seived. The crew does the preliminary sieving at the site and then the screened sediment is caried back to the car in sacks to be transported back to TBI Ileret field station. Here over the next six months the sediment is then washed and rescreened to recover the bits of fossil that would not have been seen when they were covered in dust. Last year we recovered three pieces of a single hominid molar recovered in the wet sieve, so although it takes a huge amount of time and effort to get it done, it is definitely worth it.
Elgite's hominid site sieve completed
Unusually this year the sieve sites are all in close vicinity to each other. it appears that the area in which they were found is very rich in hominin remains altough I am not sure why this might be. Weare currently seiving three hominin sites all within some 200 meters of each other.
Nyete's hominin mandible site; notice the steep slope in the background. The hominin was recovered from half way up this slope and must have rolled down from the top.
We have had good results from all the three sieves because they recovered additional fragments. This keeps the morale of the field crew high as it is painstaking work going in the hot sun and so when pieces are recovered it is very rewarding.
Arbolo working on Sale's femur and pelvis fragments site
We have been concentrating on getting the screening completed and so we have not been prospecting for fossils. We look forward to getting our eyes to the ground again however.
| 02 August 2009
The last few weeks have been busy and exciting for the crew members. What a day it was with the discovery of three hominin specimens- they were all found within hours of discovering the first one!
Crew celebrates one of the hominid finds on a day three hominid specimens were discovered
Abdub, who discovered a very important specimen two years ago, called us over excitedly. On a hillside that the crew now fondly refer to as "hominid hill", he found several scattered teeth, amongst the pebbles. They were very hard to spot and now we are in the process of a big sieve which begins at the bottom of the hillside, up the gulley in the right of the picture to the very top of the hill that the crew are standing on.
A beaming Abdub holding a box containing his hominid find at the site
While we were gathered around Abdub's find, we noticed another group were excitedly gathering around another hilltop. It was almost a dream, another call from them to come and have a look there. Sure enough, Elgite, who discovered a hominin last season had discovered more teeth of another hominin specimen.
Elgite crouched by his hominin find
But totally unexpectedly, another shout from Apollo, as he rushed down to us from around a corner...... "hominid!". It took the crew some more time to register this because at first we thought it was in reference to the ones that had already been found! He however confirmed that indeed it was yet another hominin specimen, this time a molar. What a day we all had!
Apollo poses with the hominid molar moments before it was collected
The collection team only collected hominins that morning with much excitement. Now we have mountains of seiving to get through but the discoveries continue........
| 11 July 2009
Just days after discovering the first hominid of the season in area 10, John seems to have done it again.The field crew moved into a new area and it was not long before he spoted a tooth lying on the surface. Its hard to spot these fossils as you can see from the picture below, you really need to look very carefully.
John's hominid molar
This area has not produced many specimens in the past and when they are found, many of the specimens are very broken due to livestock damage. The sediment also is the type that does not preserve fossils very well. 
John pointing to the hominid spot; crew members talk enthusiastically in the background
As is usual with hominid finds a big screen was done and after careful work over several days more fragments were recovered which hopefully will join with the rest of the pieces already found.
the resultant sieve and the crew getting professional
| 11 July 2009
This is probably the largest fossil specimen found and collected in recent years. This is the massive skull and mandible of a crocodile, some 1.8 million years old. It appears to have its mouth tightly shut and could so easily have belonged o one of the fierce and enormous river crocodiles on the Omo River today. Its a very impressive specimen, not only because of its completeness but because it is also very well preserved.
a section of the crew excavating the crocodile cranium
Excavating it was not half as much hard work as carrying this back to the camp. A road was made to get the car as close to the crocodile as possible and then we to loaded it onto the truck. This now sits on the lab veranda at Illeret and is very exciting for visitors to TBI to see while it waits to be cleaned.
the truck that carted the massive crocodile remains to the camp is parked next to the specimen; notice the size compared to the truck
Although the preservation was very good it required a little preliminary preparation in the form of applying hardeners to preserve and harden the under side which was fragile and coming off in small bits.
(below) crew member Daniel Elgite applies a hardener to the specimen shortly after offloading
| 11 July 2009
The past few weeks have been very busy for both the crew and the collection team; initially we were concentrating in Area 10. While we were there we were able to collect a large sand stone block which contained a partial hippo skull with the skull of a slender snouted crocodile- Euthecodon. These were cemented together and therefore had to be lifted intact.
The crew had the task of making a track down to the fossil exposures that would end up as close to this specimen as possible. We never drive on fossil exposures for obvious reasons.
The specimen was successfully lifted by eight strong young men and driven back to the laboratory.
It will be cleaned later in the year.
| 17 June 2009
Here is a report from our first few days in the field. We started the season returning to area 10, where we were working in 2007. There were some fossils that remained to be collected there and so we took the opportunity to work the first week here as it is not far from the TBI field station at Ileret. Field work began on a high note with the discovery by one of the team, John Lonyericho, of some hominin teeth. You can see from the picture below that some of these teeth have been broken into pieces, probably because they have been lying out on the surface for a while and have been kicked about by goat hooves. The closer we work to Ileret the more damage that we find to fossils left on the surface, due to the abundance of livestock here. It is likely that we will recover more fragments of teeth from this individual when we begin an excavation and screen. I will let you know how this progresses.
f17025 immediately after discovery
John Lonyericho is local man from Nang’olei village in Ileret and began working with the Koobi Fora Research Project last year. This is therefore very exciting for all of us that he has been so successful. Now everyone is eager to find their Hominin specimen for the season.
John at the site of his discovery
The collection team were elsewhere at the time but Meave, Kirera, Nzuve and Martin were able to collect the specimen the following day.
Meave Leakey collecting the tooth fragments.
| 07 June 2009
We have begun the field season and therefore Sunday was a busy day spent going over the modern bone collection and the hominin casts that are at the TBI field station. Francis and Meave Leakey ran an excellent refersher class for us preparing us well for finding fossils in the field. We had verious identification tasks to complete and an opportunity to discuss and ask questions.
We have also been working through some of the collections from previous years, identifying and labelling the specimens as they are being put out in trays ready for preparation.
We are now going out each day looking for fossils, while some of the team continue with training on preparation in the laboratory.
Martin (foreground and Apollo, partly hidden) goes through the paces of identifying Hominid casts in the lab:
