Ask a Geologist: Geology & Paleontology of Kenya A.K. Behrensmeyer, N.d. Melissa Boyd nationalgeographic.org About Me Melissa Boyd ● Graduate student at Rutgers Earth & Planetary Sciences ● Geological context of evolution in East Africa (Kenya) ● I love hiking, running, & cats ! ● Fave rock: serpentinite * all photos not credited are my own Ask A Geologist Series Geology of Kenya Modified from C. Scotese, youtube.com/watch?v=9OFyI2hsQ3k East African Rift Valley lithosphere: solid shell of the planet Earth (crust + upper mantle) Ask A Geologist Series DBoyd13, CC BY-SA http://www.sciencehub4kids.com/ mantle plume: narrow stream of hot mantle moving up from the Earth's core–mantle boundary Ask A Geologist Series Consequences of Rifting VOLCANOES! subsidence: sinking of the Earth’s surface worldatlas.com volcanohotspot.wordpress.com Mt. Kenya heatherkhandley @ Nabiyotum, active, 1921 magicalkenya.com Kilimanjaro Menengai Muhammad Mahdi Karim / GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) Ask A Geologist Series Consequences of Rifting Modified from J.K. Ngaira, 2012 Ask A Geologist Series Top of Mount Longonot, 9100 ft Swimming in Lake Turkana Mt. Longonot, active, 1863 Central Island Ask A Geologist Series Schwindinger and Feibel, 2012 Apak floodplain Lonyumun Lake Lokochot Lake 4.5 million years ago 4 million years ago 3.5 million years ago Today Turkana Basin through Time Ask A Geologist Series Tulu Bor floodplain Lorenyang Lake 3.4 – 2 million years 2 – 1.6 million years 1.5 - ? Today Ask A Geologist Series Depositional Environments River (fluvial) Lake (lacustrine) Murray Foubister / CC BY-SA 2.0 delta Feibel, N.d. ancient delta Alluvial Fan pages.uoregon.edu impossiblegeology.com Ask A Geologist Series Lomekwi – Lokalalei Tuff Volcanic Tuff Tephra—a general term for pyroclastic material erupted explosively from a volcano. Kalochoro – G-3 Tuff Lomekwi – Tulu Bor Tuff Tuff—a sedimentary rock consisting of more than 50% volcanic material such as ash pumice SA 3.0 - , CC BY , CC DuHamel Robert Ask A Geologist Series Tephrostratigraphy Brown and McDougall, 2011 Ask A Geologist Series Turkana Geology Lomekwi Lomekwi Ask A Geologist Series Hominins of Kenya modified from Gibbons, 2002 H. erectus Hominid: orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and human beings Hominin: human Ask A Geologist Series Geology of Hominin Fossil Discoveries TUGEN HILLS, Lukeino Formation 6 million years old! Orrorin tugenesis • Geology here is between 14 and 4 million years old • Lake and river deposits Roche et al., 2013 • Big dolerite sill stuck in the sedimentary deposits deviantart.com/sameerprehistorica Deinotherium bozasi The fossils are stored at a secret bank vault in Nairobi! Senut et al., 2001 Ask A Geologist Series Geology of Hominin Fossil Discoveries KANAPOI Australopithecus anamensis 4 million years old! • there are 3 main layers: river à lake àriver • Lots of tuff (rock made from ash from a volcano) Kalakwanya basalt Kanapoi tuff river and lake sediments C.S. Feibel, 2014 Matt Crow/Cleveland Museum of Natural History, John Gurche (Facial Ghedoghedo / CC BY-SA Reconstruction); Dale Omori/Cleveland Museum of Natural History Ask A Geologist Series Hominins of Kenya Turkana Boy – Homo erectus • Most complete human H. erectus skeleton ever found! • Found by Kamoya Kimeu on Nariokotome River floodplain modified from Gibbons, 2002 Claire Claire Houck / BYCC - SA2 SGT R.A. / WARD Public domain floodplain: ground next to a river, formed of river sediments and floods often Ask A Geologist Series Other animals discovered in Kenya turkanastratigraphy.org Shantanu Kuveskar CC BY CC - phys.org SA/4.0 vignette.wikia.nocookie.net wikiwand.com Ask A Geologist Series Dinosaurs of Kenya Pterosaur Azhdarchidae sp. Titanovenator kenyaensis / Public domain Murta Mark Witton, CC BY-SA 4.0 Spinosaurus sp. Roberto Abelisauridae gen. et sp. nov Titanosaurus sp. livescience.com ohfact.com Ask A Geologist Series Cretaceous Lokitaung Gorge Tiercelin et al., 2012 Lapurr Sandstone scotese.com wikiwand.com Lokitaung Gorge Ask A Geologist Series Desert Whale phys.org digimorph.org Liutkus-Pierce et al., 2019 Ask A Geologist Series A Whale in the Desert? Feibel, 1994 et al., 2015 al., et Wichura Liutkus-Pierce et al., 2019 , 2012 Turkana River: a fluvial corridor, Feibel connected the Turkana Basin and with the Indian Ocean. Schwindinger Ask A Geologist Series Simbakubwa Anton, 2019 Matt Borths, Duke University Borths, 2019 nationalgeographic.com Ask A Geologist Series Fun Links Interactive African fossils website (some pages aren’t working right now) Human Fossils Dinosaurs of the Turkana Grits 3-D views of fossils and bones West Turkana Paleo Project West Turkana Archaeological Project Nairobi National Museum Turkana Basin Institute Ask A Geologist Series Question Time!.