Dinesh's photos with the keyword: James Shreeve

The pattern of change in the environments of Africa helped to shape the evolution of the hominid lineage. In the late Miocene, the tropical rain forest that once dominated the continent began to give way to savanna and open woodlands. Over the next 10 million years, polar glaciers exerted a profound effect. Cooler temperatures and lower rainfall during glacial periods shrunk the forest into scattered patches, isolating the species within them. The rain forest expanded again in the warmer, wetter periods between glacial advances, bringing together species that evolved in isolation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miocene en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interglacial

The Olduvai lakeshore 1.8 million years ago, as re-created by artist Jay Matternes. A family of extinct elephant ‘elephas recki’ wallows in the shallows. Protected from predators by the close proximity of the elephants, a group of ‘Homo habilis’ searches for food, digging for tubers and roots in the ground cover. At center, one of the hominid fashions a crude Oldown tool while a juvenile watches and learns. The frothy edge of the alkaline lake is bordered with elephant grass and acacia trees. In the right foreground, the ropy, sinuous mound is a dome of solidified lava which flowed upward through the crack in the overlying rock layers and cooled upon reaching the surface. It makes a good promonotory for pelicans and cormorants. An African fish eagle perches in the drowned snag of acacia, while a small flock of flamingos passes overhead. In the background, the volcano Lemagrut rises over all, five thousand feet higher than it is today

DISCOVERY FROM 1924-1985

In this rendition of the fossil record for the human family, the known duration of each species is represented by the shadows cast by the figures. The exact relationship between extinct hominid species is a matter of interpretation, and their placement here is not meant to suggest a particular phylogeny. (Design and Graphic by Douglas Beckner. After Richard Hay, Geology of Olduvai Gorge, UC Press, 1976)

A simple chopper typical of the Olduwan stone-tool industry. Homo habilis, believed to be the earliest tool making hominid, inhabited the Olduvai region 1.8 million years ago, leaving behind hundreds of artifacts such as this one ~ DAVID BRILL

The fossil hominin footprints at Laetoli. The only hominin known from this locality is A. afarensis, which on skeletal evidence walked bipedally, and it is thus the most likely culprit. . . . .Like human walking, the main stress is on the ball of the foot and the heel, with secondary stress on the outside of the foot in line with the little toe. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laetoli

Lucy’s skeleton, as reconstructed in dental plaster by paleanthropoligists Owen Lovejoy and his students at Kent State University. Starting with casts of the original fossils, shown here in dark browns. Lovejoy mirror-imaged the bones and filled in missing parts through inferences drawn from the remains of other afarensis individuals. The posture illustrated here shows how interrelated adaptations in Lucy’s pelvis, femur, knee, and foot permitted a fully bipedal gait. ~ DAVID BRILL

What makes Olduvai such a rich fossil site is its unique geological history. Two million years ago, the wise shallow alkaline lake at Olduvai drew an abundance of life to its shores. The bones of many animals, hominids included, were buried by sediments and volcanic eruptions. Within the last five hundred thousand years, major earth movements created a depression to the east, and the flowing waters of a stream begun to cut through the accumulated deposits. Today the Gorge is one hundred meters deep exposing the fossilized bones buried when the lake still dominated the terrain.