Oldupai Gorge (also known as Olduvai Gorge) - Ngorongoro, Tanzania - Paleontology and Fossils on Waymarking.com

Oldupai Gorge (originally misnamed Olduvai) is one of the most important archaeological sites on earth. The geological strata exposed in the gorge reveal a remarkable record of animal and human evolution from about two million until fifteen thousand years ago.

Among the significant finds from Oldupai are the range of stone tool types, the thousands of animal fossils - both extinct and extant species - and the fossil bones of hominids (pre-Homo sapiens) and early Homo sapiens. The hominid fossils show the evolution of humankind over a two-million-year time span and provide a sense of our recent emergence in the world as modern humans.

Large and complex sites such as DK and FLK Zinjanthropus at Oldupai - as much as 1.8 million years old - provide one of the best records so far known of how our early ancestors lived.

Through their work at Oldupai Gorge, Louis and Mary Leakey contributed in significant and lasting ways to the discipline of palaeoanthropology - the study of early humans. Louis Leakey was a pioneer of the experimental approach to understanding how stone tools were made and used. He made stone tools and used them to skin and butcher animals. Because he understood how they were made, he was the first to recognize early stone tools in East Africa.

Mary Leakey was among the first to study Pliocene (5-1.7 million years old) and early Pleistocene (1.7 millionto 10,000 years old) sites as places where our ancestors lived. She excavated over large areas and meticulously mapped the position of each specimen.

At Oldupai, the Leakeys initiated multidisciplinary research by working with geologists, palaeontologists, archaeologists, and other scientists.

Richard Hay, a long time collaborator of the Leakeys, carried out path-breaking work on the geology and palaeoenvironment of the gorge in the 1970's, making Oldupai the best studied geological sequence at any early site.

Building on this rich legacy, scientists today continue to explore Oldupai Gorge, using new techniques and new ways of thinking to retrieve, record and interpret the evidence.

[above take from a sign within the museum, see photo]

At Laetoli, west of Ngorongoro Crater, hominid footprints are preserved in volcanic rock 3.6 millions years old and represent some of the earliest signs of mankind in the world. Three separate tracks of a small-brained upright walking early hominid. Australopithecus afarensis, a creature about 1.2 to 1.4 meters high, were found. Imprints of these are displayed in the Oldupai museum.

More advanced descendants of Laetoli's hominids were found further north, buried in the layers of the 100 meters deep Oldupai Gorge. Excavations, mainly by the archaeologist Louis and Mary Leakey, yielded four different kinds of hominid, showing a gradual increases in brain size and in the complexity of their stone tools. The first skull of Zinjanthropus, commonly known as 'Nutcracker Man' who lived about 1.75 millions years ago, was found here. The most important find include Home habilis, Zinjathropus and the Laetoli footprints.

The excavation sites have been preserved for public viewing and work continues during the dry seasons, coordinated by the Department of Antiquities. One may visit Oldupai at all times of the year. It is necessary to have official guide to visit the excavations. At the top of the Gorge there is small museum, a sheltered area used for lectures and talks, toilets and a cultural boma.

Thus, Oldupai and Laetoli makes the Ngorongoro Conservation Area an important place in the world for the study of human origins and human evolution.

[above borrowed from Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority website, see link]

What kinds of fossils are found here: It is located at the border of the Ngorongoro conservation area and the Serengeti National Park. Oldupai has yielded numerous fossil remains from pliocene to pleistocene times (from about five million to 10.000 years ago), including the skull of the primitive hominid australopithecus boisei or nutcracker man, a species that became extinct about one million years ago. Despite the controversy surrounding the interpretation of many of the Oldupai specimens, scientists agree that no other site has produced stone tools, animal bones and early hominid remains so precisely associated in such a well understood environment. The 3.75 million year old fossilised footprints, found by Dr. Mary Leakey in 1975 at nearby laetoli, proved that our prehuman ancestors walked in a upright position, this is widely thought to rank among the greatest palaeoanthropogical discoveries of the past century. Admission Fee: yes Link for more information about this site: [Web Link]

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