Turkana Basin Institute
Support Scientific Research & Exploration in the Turkana Basin of Northern Kenya
Turkana Basin Institute
Project Details & Background
The Turkana Basin region is a source of unprecedented fossil and archaeological evidence for all major stages of human development. This is the place where our story is written. Every human being alive today shares DNA inherited from a common ancestral population that we currently believe lived in or within a few hundred miles of the Turkana Basin, about 60-70,000 years ago.
Currently, research projects in the Basin are investigating an enormous range of questions about the ancient inhabitants in and around Lake Turkana, including Cretaceous period vertebrates such as dinosaurs and crocodilians; the origins of modern African megafauna; the evolution of Miocene apes; ancestry of the hominid lineage in Africa; the origins of our own genus Homo; the diversification and spread of modern humans in the last 250,000 years; and the transition to pastoralism, fishing, and agriculture.

Stony Brook University & TBI
The Importance of the Turkana Basin
The Turkana Basin region is a source of unprecedented fossil and archaeological evidence for all major stages of human development. This is the place where our story is written. Every human being alive today shares DNA inherited from a common ancestral population that we currently believe lived in or within a few hundred miles of the Turkana Basin, about 60-70,000 years ago.
It is an unparalleled window into the past. Within its 7,000 square miles of exposed surface area, rich fossil layers encapsulate major evolutionary events from the Mesozoic era to the present. To the northwest, in exposures throughout the Labur mountain range, a diverse collection of dinosaur and other reptilian vertebrate fossils have been discovered, including carnivorous therapods, herbivorous sauropods, and flying pterosaurs. Early Miocene sites on the northeast side of the lake document the evolution of elephants, rhinoceroses, carnivores, giraffes, pigs, and, notably, the ancestors of old world monkeys and apes shortly after the two diverged. Miocene-age exposures immediately west of the lake have yielded a trove of fossils which have proven critical to understanding the evolution of our own ape ancestors.
It was on the east side of the lake, in the Koobi Fora area, where Richard and Meave Leakey and their colleagues launched their incredible series of groundbreaking hominin discoveries that would form much of the evidence we have for human evolution, expanding later to sites on the west side of the lake which yielded Kenyanthropus platyops and Australopithecus anamensis, the oldest-known hominin to date. Archaeological expeditions in the Turkana Basin have yielded the world’s oldest stone tools. And in sites throughout the region we see the emergence of modern Homo sapiens. Truly, the potential for new, important scientific discoveries in the Turkana Basin is as vast as the region itself.
The Team
Richard Leakey
Paleoanthropologist, Conservationist, Politician, Founder
Dr. Richard E. Leakey is a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist, and politician. Leakey has held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife conservation. He has been Director of the National Museum of Kenya and head of the Kenyan Wildlife Service, and he founded the NGO WildlifeDirect, the Turkana Basin Institute, and Ngaren: The Museum of Humankind.
Lawrence Martin
Director of the Turkana Basin Institute
Martin has been at the heart of TBI activities since its creation in 2005, and has worked closely with Richard Leakey on fundraising, developing a field school, developing a self-sustaining business plan for TBI in Kenya, developing an internationally renowned series of workshops, and developing inter-institutional collaborations in education and science facilitated by TBI.
Prior to assuming his administrative role, Martin built an impressive record of both field-based and laboratory research and scholarship in physical anthropology and is regarded as one of the leading authorities on the evolution of apes and the origin of humans.
FAQs
Am I donating to TBI or to the Terra Conservation Initiative?
Your donation will go to Terra Conservation Initiative to support TBI and other TCI conservation organizations.
Is my donation tax-deductible?
Yes, Terra Conservation Initiative (TCI) is a program sponsored by Ngaren, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Is the Turkana Basin Institute related to Ngaren Museum of Humankind in any capacity?
Not at present, but it is Richard Leakey’s intention to link the two upon completion of construction of the museum.