Isotope Biogeochemistry Lecture Videos
Thure Cerling
Fifty years of progress in understanding environments of human evolution in Africa
When Richard Leakey first set foot in the Turkana Basin in the late 1960s, paleoenvironmental interpretations of terrestrial deposits were rudimentary compared to today. Questions posed by paleontologists and anthropologists were the catalyst for developing methods to understand paleoecology; hand-in-hand, new tools prompted further questions and today, isotope geochemistry is used in virtually every site of interest to human evolution.
Gregory Henkes
Stable isotope paleothermometry of human origins in the Turkana Basin
The stable isotope geochemistry of terrestrial carbonates is among the most important recorders of paleoclimate and paleoenvironments in East Africa. In this talk, Greg Henkes will describe our efforts to apply clumped isotopes - a novel isotope thermometer - to reconstruct ancient climates in Turkana, and he will discuss future advances and research directions.
Julia Lee-Thorp
Isotope biogeochemistry and early hominin diets
This talk will look back at the genesis of isotope chemistry applied to the hominin record, examine what we have learned, and pick out some opportunities for future progress.
Kevin Uno
Miocene ecosystems and mammal diets in the Turkana Basin
Much of Dr. Richard Leakey’s research career focused on the fossil record of the Plio-Pleistocene (~4-1 Ma) deposits of the Omo Group. Here, I present new data on ecosystems and mammal diets from the Turkana Miocene Project that focus on the less well-studied deposits spanning the Oligocene to Miocene epochs.