Review by Choice Review
Lothagam, southwest of Lake Turkana, has been known for some 30 years as one of the oldest fossil localities in East Africa yielding remains of early humans. After the work of Harvard's Bryan Patterson in the 1960s, several teams from the National Museums of Kenya collected additional fossils into the mid-1990s. In this volume, some 20 authors from the US, Europe, and Africa report their findings on the geology, age, paleoenvironment (including stable isotopic analyses), and fossil fauna (especially mammals) of the several horizons distinguished in the area. Although sediments at Lothagam range in age from c.14-1.8 million years ago (Mya), most of the fossils derive from levels dated 7.5-5.2 Mya, with some from the 5-2 Mya horizons. Unfortunately, very few hominins (human relatives) were recovered. More complete remains from older localities (in the 8-5 Mya range) have recently eclipsed the importance of these fossils, but the volume has great value for researchers as a standard of comparison for collections of this age. Excellent editors' summary of fauna, environments, and comparisons with contemporaneous assemblages across Africa and Eurasia; beautiful and scholarly reconstructions of individual species and landscapes by Mauricio Anton. For paleontological collections. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Graduate students; faculty. E. Delson CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
