Once again, I turn the blog over to CUNY grad student Julia Zichello –WHS | We were kneeling on the ground at Kiahera, brushing and picking through the loose earth as the heat quietly drowned our thoughts. I decided that I just needed to sit down for a second. So I sat and swept my [...]

NAIROBI, Kenya | We’ve made our way back to the capital from Lake Victoria. Most of us struck camp on the 31st of July, but one team stayed back an extra day. There was that much to do. Co-director Holly Dunsworth and I even managed to score a flight back to Nairobi with a local [...]

RUSINGA ISLAND, Kenya | We’ve been in camp almost three weeks now, and it’s been a terrific season. We’ve found over 800 identifiable fossils, and more come in every day. We also have thousands of scrappy pieces that are being kept for later laboratory work. One aspect of the sites that we’re focusing on is [...]

RUSINGA ISLAND, Kenya |Today’s guest blog comes from Julia Zichello, a doctoral student at Hunter College: I’m a second-year PhD student in biological anthropology, focusing on primate genetics. Quite frankly, I don’t get out of the lab much, and this is my first field-work experience. This summer I am very fortunate to be a part [...]

RUSINGA ISLAND, Kenya | Phew! After a few days in Nairobi and a very long drive west, we’ve finally arrived at our camp. An advance team had already driven out to set up camp and make arrangements with the local authorities. Preparing for our arrival, they worked on preliminary mapping and geology for our expedition. [...]

RUSINGA ISLAND, Kenya | Searching for our fossil ancestors is an esoteric business, but it also elicits a disproportionately wide degree of attention in the popular press. Maybe this is because knowing where we came from (and how we got here!) is one of those fundamental questions people like to ask. Quiz the average person [...]