Geology, paleontology & anthropology
If
you have only passing interest to walk in the “cradle of mankind” or perhaps you have never read “The Tree
Where Man Was Born”, to touch rocks and cliffs millions of years old is sobering. There are rock paintings in caves
to explore; there is Olduvai Gorge where footprints were discovered that indicated when man stood upright on the way to the
Serengeti Plains. So much to do. And you may incorporate as much or as little on a safari designed just for you.
Safari travelers with a special interest in the origin and development of the human species will find extraordinary prehistoric sites in both Tanzania and Kenya. In Tanzania, for instance, you can visit the world famous Olduvai Gorge, where steep sides reveal a series of strata covering a time-span of about two million years. Layer after layer of volcanic ash deposited here over the ages provide geologists with a kind of chart enabling them to probe the course of our evolution far back into the Pleistocene age. It was here that Mary and Louis Leakey discovered "Nutcracker Man", estimated to be 1 3/4 million years old. The Leakey's unearthed some four hundred fragments to piece together the skull of a pre-human, Homo Habilis, a member of a side branch of the human tree.
For the serious minded and intrepid traveler there is, in Kenya, at Koobi Fora on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana, about
300 meters of accumulated sediment which lie exposed in several large areas, creating sites ideal for the investigation of
lateral differences along one time plane. Of the many discoveries found here from tools and fossils, probably the most important
find to date has been the skull of 1470-man which dates back 2 to 3 million years. The skull belonged to Homo habilis, the
same species of hominid excavated at Olduvai some ten years earlier.
I love rock collecting but the problem is that no-one wants to walk with me and my pet-rocks.
photo credits: Paul Oliver
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