Publication Est.  Field Season 2021

Dispatches from the cradle of humanity

The Chronicle

Field Notes & Discoveries

East Africa Science & Conservation 2025 – 2026
12 posts
All Stories
Research 01

The discovery of the Paranthropus boisei hand

The Koobi Fora Research Project announce the discovery of new hand and foot fossils of Paranthropus, a distant cousin to humans, significantly extending our understanding of the evolution of tool use and bipedality within the human family tree

Leakey Journeys 7 Apr 2026
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Field Notes 02

Field notes December 2025

The team was scaled back in December as most of the team stopped to have a break. The camp was taken down and the vehicles had a service in Mwangombes workshop at the Turkana Basin

Leakey Journeys 7 Apr 2026
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Field Notes 03

Field Notes: January 2026

Back in the field with a new season's energy: rebuilding camp, a windstorm that nearly wrecked the dining tent, a monkey cranium with all its teeth, and the first in situ fossil from Section 25B.

Leakey Journeys 1 Apr 2026
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Field Notes 04

Field Notes: November 2025

Louise and Jeniffer visit Lee Berger's caves in South Africa — then Lee visits us. Plus: learning fossil preparation at TBI, a Land Rover resurrection, and a possible phalanx from the hominin level.

Leakey Journeys 26 Mar 2026
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Field Notes 05

Field Notes: October 2025

A new camp, a broken Land Rover, rain that stopped play, the first fossil from the excavation — and an evening watching Cave of Bones ahead of Lee Berger's visit.

Leakey Journeys 26 Mar 2026
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Field Notes 06

Field Notes: August & September 2025

From extensive sieving at Area 104 to wildlife encounters at dawn, chilli paste in camp, and a return to Ileret — two months of fieldwork at Koobi Fora.

Leakey Journeys 26 Mar 2026
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Field Notes 07

Field Notes: February 2026

Discovery, dust, and downpours — February brought us visitors by helicopter, a team from National Geographic, a melanistic serval cat, and some new old bones. More from out remarkable field season.

Leakey Journeys 23 Mar 2026
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Research 08

A Brief History of the Koobi Fora Research Project

In 1968 Richard Leakey set up camp on a sandy spit on the eastern shores of Lake Turkana. More than 54 years later, the research project he founded continues to recover fossils that reshape our understanding of human origins.

Leakey Journeys 23 Mar 2026
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Research 09

Homo habilis skeleton form east Turkana- KNMER 64061

New 2 million-year-old skeleton associated with a dentition of Homo habilis is the oldest and most complete known for that species

Leakey Journeys 2 Dec 2025
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Research 10

Hominin footprints from Ileret

Fossil Footprints Offer Direct Evidence for Two Extinct Human Ancestors Sharing the same landscapes

Leakey Journeys 28 Sept 2025
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Education 11

Empowering Local Communities Through Science

Bridging the gap between scientific discovery and local stewardship in the Turkana Basin region.

Leakey Journeys 20 Aug 2025
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