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Toshiyuki Fujioka and Alfonso Benito-Calvo, researchers at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), have recently published a paper in the Journal of Human Evolution with the results of burial dating using the cosmogenic nuclide isochron method, applied for the first time directly to the lithic industry of the Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania).The Olduvai Gorge is known worldwide for its rich Lower Pleistocene paleontological and archaeological record. This paper contributes to the challenge of building a robust geochronological framework on the archaeological sequences of the Olduvai sites through the application of cosmogenic nuclide dating.The method has been applied...

Olduvai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine on the edge of the Serengeti Plain, East Africa, and is home to some of the world's most important fossil hominins. Geologists are investigating the chemical composition of carbonate rocks that lie beneath the surfaces where early human fossils have been uncovered. The data will help an international team of geologists, paleoanthropologists and archaeologists understand how environmental pressures may have influenced the development of human ancestors and their use of the land. Professor Ian Stanistreet, from the School of Environmental Sciences, said: "Research findings so far suggest that environmental changes, such as very dry...

The Olduvai Paleoanthropological and Paleoecological Project (TOPPP) in which the the Universidad Complutense de Madrid participated aims to expose the false presumptions made by previous studies which concluded that the first humans were scavengers... Dominguez-Rodrigo and his team have proved that what the other researchers interpreted as teeth marks made by carnivores on the fossils, are in reality biochemical marks with a very different origin, such as fungus and bacteria that were brought in to contact with the bones by the roots of plants that grew in the sediment in which they were buried... The new data also shows that...