Volcanoes can help us untangle the evolution of humans – here’s how

By Saini Samim, PhD Candidate, School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne
Hayden Dalton, Lecturer in Geoscience, The University of Melbourne

How did humans become human? Understanding when, where and in what environmental conditions our early ancestors lived is central to solving the puzzle of human evolution.

Unfortunately, pinning down a timeline of early human evolution has long been difficult – but ancient volcanic eruptions in East Africa may hold the key.

Our new study, published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, refines what we know about volcanic ash layers in Turkana Basin, Kenya. This place has yielded many early human…

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