The Late Miocene origin of the hominin clade occurred in the context of major abiotic and biotic changes, including global cooling and aridification, the expansion of grassland ecosystems, and extensive faunal exchange between Africa and Eurasia. Though geochemical, geochronological, and palaeontological datasets have clarified the timing of these key events, we still know little of how shifts in ancient African environments translated to changes in the structure and functioning of the local ecosystems within which the earliest hominins evolved. This knowledge gap largely stems from the scarcity of fossiliferous sites ~ 10-6 Ma in eastern Africa, with the site of Lothagam (West Turkana Basin, Kenya) being an outstanding exception.

The Lothagam Research Project (co-directors J. Rowan and I. Lazagabaster) is a palaeontological field work project aiming to enhance our understanding of hominin origins in eastern Africa. In addition to the new field work, we are incorporating existing collections housed at the Kenya National Museum (Nairobi) into our systematic, palaeobiological, and palaeoecological studies of the Turkana Basin's Late Miocene ecosystems.