People | Andy Cohen

Implications of African Paleoclimates for Human History

I am investigating how our understanding of African paleoclimates during the Quaternary can be applied to studies of human origins. Along with colleagues at the University of Arizona, the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution) and Rutgers University I hosted a conference on “Paleoclimates and Human Evolution” (Cohen et al., 2006).

A. Fossil hominin (H. erectus) footprints in early Pleistocene
lake margin deposits of the Koobi Fora Formation, east of
Lake Turkana, Kenya. Tracks from many other types
of animals are also visible in this photo.

B. The Lake Malawi drill barge during 2006 operations. Core records from this project
are being used to better understand the environmental context of human evolution over the past 1.5Ma