Achievement

IGERT faculty member Terry Harrison is directing a long-term field project investigating the paleontology and geology of the early hominin locality of Laetoli in Tanzania. This is a major international and multidisciplinary project involving more than 50 scientists from eight countries, with expertise in geology, sedimentology, geochemistry, radiometric dating, isotopic studies, paleontology, paleobotany, palynology, paleoecology, taphonomy, and modern faunas and floras. In the past ten years, 25 graduate students, primarily from NYCEP, have participated in the fieldwork and have obtained training in field methods, paleontology, geology and paleoecology. The first phase of the project is now completed, and a two-volume collection of edited papers (more than 40 contributions) describing the results has been submitted for publication and will be published in 2010. Twelve chapters are authored or co-authored by NYCEP faculty, a postdoctoral scholar and former students.