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Turkana Miocene Project explores climate change impact on evolution

The NSF Frontier Research in Earth Sciences program (FRES) has funded the Turkana Miocene Project proposal to the tune of ~$2.7 million. The grant will fund research over 4 years to better understand how climate change and tectonics interacted to shape the evolution of the environment in which the ancestors of humans and our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangs emerged in Africa.

By |2021-05-14T10:04:08+03:00October 1st, 2020|Featured|Comments Off on Turkana Miocene Project explores climate change impact on evolution

Smithsonian Magazine names decade’s biggest discoveries in human evolution

Smithsonian Magazine has named the "Decade’s Biggest Discoveries in Human Evolution." Fourth on the list is the discovery in 2011 of the world's oldest stone tools, made by a team of archeologists led by Sonia Harmand and Jason Lewis of Stony Brook University: "When you think of technology today, you might picture computers, smartphones, and [...]

By |2020-05-01T10:46:09+03:00May 1st, 2020|Featured|Comments Off on Smithsonian Magazine names decade’s biggest discoveries in human evolution

Did the common ancestor of humans and great apes evolve in Africa or Eurasia?

It is known based on DNA analysis that chimpanzees are the closest living relatives to humans, the two together are closest to gorillas, then three together to orangs. Furthermore, humans, the great apes (chimpanzee, gorillas, and orangs) together with the lesser apes (gibbons and siamangs) belong to the superfamily named Hominoidea. The closest living [...]

By |2019-03-06T05:38:58+03:00March 6th, 2019|Discovery, Featured, Research|Comments Off on Did the common ancestor of humans and great apes evolve in Africa or Eurasia?

Massive Lake Turkana burial site hints at social complexity of earliest herders

A groundbreaking study has found the earliest and largest monumental cemetery in eastern Africa built 5,000 years ago by early pastoralists living around Lake Turkana, Kenya. This group is believed to have lived without major inequalities and hierarchies, contradicting long-standing narratives about the origins of early civilizations. The study, led by Elisabeth Hildebrand, PhD, Department [...]

By |2018-08-21T17:59:30+03:00August 20th, 2018|Featured, General|Comments Off on Massive Lake Turkana burial site hints at social complexity of earliest herders

Ancient Glycans May Help Trace Human Evolution

Ancient DNA recovered from fossils is a valuable tool to study evolution and anthropology. Yet fossil DNA has not been found yet in any part of Africa, where it’s destroyed by extreme heat and humidity. In a potential first step at overcoming this hurdle, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and [...]

By |2017-09-11T12:03:58+03:00September 11th, 2017|Featured, General|Comments Off on Ancient Glycans May Help Trace Human Evolution

13 million-year-old infant ape skull discovered in the Turkana Basin

The discovery in Kenya of a remarkably complete fossil ape skull reveals what the common ancestor of all living apes and humans may have looked like. The find, announced in the scientific journal Nature on August 10th, belongs to an infant that lived about 13 million years ago. The research was done by an international [...]

By |2017-08-15T15:57:59+03:00August 9th, 2017|Featured, General|Comments Off on 13 million-year-old infant ape skull discovered in the Turkana Basin

TBI assists local communities in the wake of disastrous floods

On Tuesday May 30th, a vast storm hit the Ileret area and brought an immense amount of rain. Within a short period of 9 hours, TBI Ileret facility documented a record-high rainfall of more than 200 mm (8 inches). This amount is much more than a typical rainstorm at Ileret (~20 mm), and more than [...]

By |2017-08-15T15:59:20+03:00June 20th, 2017|Featured, Field Schools, Global Innovation 2017, Global Innovation Field School, Local Community Outreach|Comments Off on TBI assists local communities in the wake of disastrous floods

Global Innovation Field School 2017 begins!

As most people are enjoying the beach and sunshine in the US, some Stony Brook students took a long shot and came to the shores of Lake Turkana, Kenya. They are here for the brand-new Global Innovation Field School! The Global Innovation summer program is organized by the College of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Stony [...]

By |2017-06-04T16:54:59+03:00May 27th, 2017|Featured, Field Schools, Global Innovation 2017|Comments Off on Global Innovation Field School 2017 begins!
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