"What did the world look like when one of our ancestors opened their eyes in the morning 3 million years ago? What kind of habitat was nearby? With whom were they competing for food? What predators wanted to eat them? What other bipedal apes may have been in the vicinity?"
These are the questions Leakey Foundation grantee and biological anthropologist Amy Rector loves to think about.
Part of Amy's work involves reconstructing the ancient eastern and southern African environments our ancestors lived in. The pictures here show Amy and her colleagues working in Ethiopia's Afar region as part of the Ledi-Geraru Research Project. Ledi-Geraru is a very important site where the oldest-known fossil in our genus Homo was found by Leakey Foundation grantee Chalachew Seyoum in 2013.
"I love the ecology of Ethiopia's Afar region – as a paleoecologist who is always thinking about the habitat in the past, the living animals are exciting – and I wake up each morning wondering what tiny (and large!) footprints I might find outside my tent. One night when the wind was blowing, I got up to use the privy and ran into a camel lying down in the pathway – I’m still not sure which one of us screamed the loudest!" ... See MoreSee Less
3 hours ago