@article{OwenMuiruriLowensteinetal.2018,
  author    = {Owen, Richard Bernhart and Muiruri, Veronica M. and Lowenstein, Tim K. and Renaut, Robin W. and Rabideaux, Nathan and Luo, Shangde and Deino, Alan L. and Sier, Mark J. and Dupont-Nivet, Guillaume and McNulty, Emma P. and Leet, Kennie and Cohen, Andrew and Campisano, Christopher and Deocampo, Daniel and Shen, Chuan-Chou and Billingsley, Anne and Mbuthia, Anthony},
  title     = {Progressive aridification in East Africa over the last half million years and implications for human evolution},
  series = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
  volume    = {115},
  journal   = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
  number    = {44},
  publisher = {National Academy of Sciences},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {0027-8424},
  doi       = {10.1073/pnas.1801357115},
  pages     = {11174 -- 11179},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Evidence for Quaternary climate change in East Africa has been derived from outcrops on land and lake cores and from marine dust, leaf wax, and pollen records. These data have previously been used to evaluate the impact of climate change on hominin evolution, but correlations have proved to be difficult, given poor data continuity and the great distances between marine cores and terrestrial basins where fossil evidence is located. Here, we present continental coring evidence for progressive aridification since about 575 thousand years before present (ka), based on Lake Magadi (Kenya) sediments. This long-term drying trend was interrupted by many wet-dry cycles, with the greatest variability developing during times of high eccentricity-modulated precession. Intense aridification apparent in the Magadi record took place between 525 and 400 ka, with relatively persistent arid conditions after 350 ka and through to the present. Arid conditions in the Magadi Basin coincide with the Mid-Brunhes Event and overlap with mammalian extinctions in the South Kenya Rift between 500 and 400 ka. The 525 to 400 ka arid phase developed in the South Kenya Rift between the period when the last Acheulean tools are reported (at about 500 ka) and before the appearance of Middle Stone Age artifacts (by about 320 ka). Our data suggest that increasing Middle- to Late-Pleistocene aridification and environmental variability may have been drivers in the physical and cultural evolution of Homo sapiens in East Africa.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{BraunAldeiasArcheretal.2019,
  author    = {Braun, David R. and Aldeias, Vera and Archer, Will and Arrowsmith, J. Ramon and Baraki, Niguss and Campisano, Christopher J. and Deino, Alan L. and DiMaggio, Erin N. and Dupont-Nivet, Guillaume and Engda, Blade and Feary, David A. and Garello, Dominique I. and Kerfelew, Zenash and McPherron, Shannon P. and Patterson, David B. and Reeves, Jonathan S. and Thompson, Jessica C. and Reed, Kaye E.},
  title     = {Reply to Sahle and Gossa: Technology and geochronology at the earliest known Oldowan site at Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia},
  series = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
  volume    = {116},
  journal   = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
  number    = {41},
  publisher = {National Acad. of Sciences},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {0027-8424},
  doi       = {10.1073/pnas.1911952116},
  pages     = {20261 -- 20262},
  year      = {2019},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{CohenCampisanoArrowsmithetal.2016,
  author    = {Cohen, Abby and Campisano, Christopher and Arrowsmith, J. Ramon and Asrat, Asfawossen and Behrensmeyer, A. K. and Deino, A. and Feibel, C. and Hill, A. and Johnson, R. and Kingston, J. and Lamb, Henry F. and Lowenstein, T. and Noren, A. and Olago, D. and Owen, Richard Bernhart and Potts, R. and Reed, Kate and Renaut, R. and Sch{\"a}bitz, F. and Tiercelin, J.-J. and Trauth, Martin H. and Wynn, J. and Ivory, S. and Brady, K. and O'Grady, R. and Rodysill, J. and Githiri, J. and Russell, Joellen and Foerster, Verena and Dommain, Ren{\´e} and Rucina, J. S. and Deocampo, D. and Russell, J. and Billingsley, A. and Beck, C. and Dorenbeck, G. and Dullo, L. and Feary, D. and Garello, D. and Gromig, R. and Johnson, T. and Junginger, Annett and Karanja, M. and Kimburi, E. and Mbuthia, A. and McCartney, Tannis and McNulty, E. and Muiruri, V. and Nambiro, E. and Negash, E. W. and Njagi, D. and Wilson, J. N. and Rabideaux, N. and Raub, Timothy and Sier, Mark Jan and Smith, P. and Urban, J. and Warren, M. and Yadeta, M. and Yost, Chad and Zinaye, B.},
  title     = {The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project},
  series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  journal   = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  number    = {611},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-41249},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412498},
  pages     = {16},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {The role that climate and environmental history may have played in influencing human evolution has been the focus of considerable interest and controversy among paleoanthropologists for decades. Prior attempts to understand the environmental history side of this equation have centered around the study of outcrop sediments and fossils adjacent to where fossil hominins (ancestors or close relatives of modern humans) are found, or from the study of deep sea drill cores. However, outcrop sediments are often highly weathered and thus are unsuitable for some types of paleoclimatic records, and deep sea core records come from long distances away from the actual fossil and stone tool remains. The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) was developed to address these issues. The project has focused its efforts on the eastern African Rift Valley, where much of the evidence for early hominins has been recovered. We have collected about 2 km of sediment drill core from six basins in Kenya and Ethiopia, in lake deposits immediately adjacent to important fossil hominin and archaeological sites. Collectively these cores cover in time many of the key transitions and critical intervals in human evolutionary history over the last 4 Ma, such as the earliest stone tools, the origin of our own genus Homo, and the earliest anatomically modern Homo sapiens. Here we document the initial field, physical property, and core description results of the 2012-2014 HSPDP coring campaign.},
  language  = {en}
}