Gail M. Ashley, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ,

"The Harsh Environment of Early Hominids, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania"

The study of a Plio-Pleistocene "time slice" in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania provides a successful example of a reconstructed paleolandscape that is rich in detail and adds a small piece to the puzzle of hominid evolution in Africa. There is a growing consensus that climate variability (i.e.magnitude and frequency of climate change) was an important factor in natural selection. Reconstruction of the environment requires multidisciplinary interaction of geologists, soil scientists paleoanthropologists and paleoecologists. Lake Olduvai expanded and contracted on Milankovitch time scales (20 Ka). Freshwater wetlands provided a source of food and safety in an otherwise harsh setting. The importance of wetlands to the ecology of hominids at Olduvai had not been appreciated before and the linkage was noted only because of the interdisciplinary approach of the research.