John Kingston
Field and Laboratory Research Projects

The core of my research agenda is paleoecological investigations of East African hominoid/hominid fossil sites ranging in age from 20 Ma to 60 kyr. I’ve focused on localities where paleoenvironmental reconstructions provide a key perspective to specific questions relating to either evolutionary events or hominid behavior. As part of the Baringo Paleontological Research Project, headed by Andrew Hill at Yale University, I have been collecting and analyzing material from the Tugen Hills Succession for over 10 years. These sediments have yielded an abundant and diverse stone artifact and faunal record which includes the greatest known concentration of hominoid specimens known from the 14 to 4.5 Ma range as well as a number of more recent hominid specimens. The large temporal range(15.5 Ma to <200 kyr) and spatial scale (>2500 km2) of these sediments provide a unique opportunity to establish a relatively continuous ecological profile in which to evaluate the origin and subsequent adaptive radiations of the human lineage.


Andrew Hill with Ngorora Fm. exposed at Kabasero, Tugen Hills, Kenyan Rift Valley


Boniface Kimeu excavating fossil in the Chemeron Fm.

 

Sediments of the upper Chemeron Formation, spanning the 3.5 to 1.6 myr interval in the Tugen Hills of the Kenyan Rift Valley, have revealed a series of diatomites representing major lake systems aternating with fluvial sediments. Detailed 39Ar/40Ar dating of tuffs in the sequence clearly indicate that the lakes occur at 23 kyr cycles, suggesting that climatic conditions within the inner rift are influenced by precessional orbital insolation effects. We are investigating it’s effect East African fauna, specifically the origin and adaptive radiation of the genus Homo during the middle Pliocene (with Andrew Hill (Dept. Anthropology, Yale University) and Al Deino (Berkeley Geochronology Center)).

The project just recieved NSF funding to continue these investigations through 2010 (NSF proposal 0711371).


Outcrops of upper Chemeron sediments including diatomites (white horizons in foreground bushes, center of photo and upper left exposures) representing lake deposits cycling in the succession.

Diatomites, representing major lake systems in the Baringo Basin ~2.5 Ma correlate with maximum insolation as controlled by precession.


Sally McBrearty at the lower Kasurein Basalt in the upper Kapthurin Formation, Baringo Basin, Central Kenyan Rift Valley

 Developing a detailed environmental framework for Middle to Later Pleistocene archeological and paleontologic sites in the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya with the Kapthurin Archeological Survey Project headed by Sally McBrearty (Dept. Anthropology, University of Connecticut). This formation spans the last 700 kyr and preserves abundant stone artifacts and fossil fauna including hominids and provides an opportunity to explore potential correlations between the appearance of modern Homo sapiens, the replacement of Acheulian technology by Middle Stone Age industries, and climatic events.
McBrearty excavation in the upper Kapthurin Formation, Baringo Basin

 

A paleoenvironmental assessment of early hominin sites at Laetoli, nothern Tanzania with Terry Harrison (Dept. Anthropology, NYU) to investigate previous assumptions linking Australopithecus afarensis to open habitats 3.7 million years ago.


Terry Harrison prospecting in Upper Laetolil Beds, Tanzania

Laetoli area with Lemagrut volcanic edifice in background



Laura MacLatchy near locality Moroto II with Moroto volcanic edifice in background
A paleoenvironmental study of the early to middle Miocene hominoid sites of Napak and Moroto in northeastern Uganda with Laura MacLatchy (Dept. Anthropology, Boston University). Tuffaceous sediments deposited on the flanks of these extinct volcanoes yield abundant and diverse fossil assemblages including several apes.

Will Downs near summit of Akism, Napak, Uganda


Prospecting for fossil at Site CCI, Napak

Compilation of depositional and microenvironmental context of Neogene vertebrate localities in E. Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to document potential emigration routes of hominoids and early hominids out of Africa with Andrew Hill (Dept. Anthropology, Yale University) and Peter Whybrow (Dept. Paleontology, British Museum of Natural History)

Miocene fossiliferous sediments exposed at Jebel Barakah, Abu Dhabi


Rukwa Trough, Southern Tanzania
Exploratory research on potential Pliocene hominid sites in the Mbeya/Lake Rukwa region of Tanzania with Richard Sherwood (Dept. Anthropology, Univ. Wisconsin).
Fossiliferous sediments in Rukwa Basin (age unknown)

 

Sampling of herbivore enamel from Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) and Kanjera (Kenya) for constraining dietary and environmental conditions at specific hominid levels in conjunction with ecomorphologic analyses of late Miocene to Pliocene East African herbivores with Tom Plummer (Dept. Anthropology, Queens College), Laura Bishop (Dept. Anthropology, University of Liverpool), and Peter Ditchfield (Oxford University).

Pilot studies to characterize the biochemistry of modern ape habitats, including specific components of plants, animals, soils, water, and local atmosphere to provide a template for interpreting fossil hominid sites. Chimpanzee sites in Uganda will be targeted.

Monitoring physiological and environmental aspects of fossil vertebrate taxa by simultaneously analyzing carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen isotopes.

Analyses of the oxygen isotopes in biogenic phosphate to monitor seasonality in early hominid sites.

A series of biochemical experiments to assess the biogenic integrity of fossil enamel apatite for use in paleodietary reconstruction

 

Kingston Home Page Emory Anthropology Emory University