Koobi Fora is a region on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya’s Turkana Basin, known for its important contributions to understanding human origins. This area’s sediments span millions of years of Earth’s history, holding a rich record of life on our planet, including many hominin fossils.
Tempus fugit
At the end of the 1967 field season, Richard Leakey decided to abandon his participation in the International (i.e., France, Kenya and the US) Omo Research Expedition (IORE) based in Ethiopia, to explore the southern extension of those sediments that are exposed on the eastern shore of what was then called Lake Rudolf in northern Kenya.
The consequences of that decision have been set out in print elsewhere (Harris et al., 20061; Pilbeam and Wood, 20252) and Richard’s own story has been captured in several documentaries.
Sadly, many of those who participated in the early years of what became known as the East Rudolf Research Project (ERRP) are no longer alive.
However, three who are, Kay Behrensmeyer, Thure Cerling, and Bernard Wood, met recently in Washington DC to share the very different ways they each became involved in the ERRP, and their individual and shared experiences once they were involved.
The Leakey Foundation is grateful to the George Washington University for the loan of the studio facilities and to Rachel Lotze, who kindly recorded and filmed the conversation.
A conversation with Kay Behrensmeyer, Thure Cerling, and Bernard Wood
Oral History Transcript
The transcript below is and free to read and download.
References
- Harris, J. M., Leakey M. G. & Brown, F. H. 2006. A Brief History of Research at Koobi Fora, Northern Kenya. Ethnohistory 53, 35–69. ↩︎
- Pilbeam, David and Wood, Bernard. 2025. ‘Richard Erskine Frere Leakey. 19 December 1944— 2 January 2022’. Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society 78, 235-260. ↩︎