Awash Baringo Correlation and Cyclostratigraphy: Human evolution and paleoclimate

Project Information

ABCCycle

Grant agreement ID: 101109142

DOI

10.3030/101109142

Project closed

EC signature date 15 March 2023

Start date 1 May 2023

End date 30 April 2025

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 203 464,32

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ABCCycle (Awash Baringo Correlation and Cyclostratigraphy: Human evolution and paleoclimate)

Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2025-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

ABCCycle (Awash Baringo Correlation and Cyclostratigraphy) project
Why This Research Matters:
Understanding when things happened is essential for understanding how humans evolved. Scientists believe that changes the environment—like climate shifts—played a big role in shaping early human development and adaptation. But there’s a major challenge: we often lack precise timelines for these environmental changes. Without accurate dating, it’s difficult to test whether key evolutionary events were truly triggered by climate shifts.

What the ABCCycle Project Aims to Do:


The ABCCycle project seeks to tackle this problem by building a precise timeline (or “age model”) for two of the most important fossil-rich sites in East Africa:

• Baringo/Tugen Hills in Kenya

• Northern Awash region in Ethiopia

These sites preserve critical fossil and archaeological evidence from a pivotal window in human evolution (between ~3.3 to 2.5 million years ago), including:
• the emergence of the genus Homo
• the appearance of the earliest stone tools.


How They’ll Do It:

The project integrates cutting-edge geochronological techniques to date layers of lake sediment layers that preserved records of past environments and climatic conditions. These include:

• Relative Paleointensity (RPI): Measuring variations in Earth’s magnetic field intensity over time recorded in rocks.
• Cyclostratigraphy: Detecting natural climate cycles —driven by Earth’s orbit— reflected in rock layers.
• Magnetostratigraphy and Tephrostratigraphy: applying existing data on magnetic field reversals and volcanic ash layers to date sediments

By combining these techniques, the project will link fossils and archaeological finds to specific environmental changes with unprecedented resolution.

The Big Picture:
With a new, high-resolution timeline in place, scientist will be able to:
• Test whether climate change can be linked to changes in key evolutionary developments
• Compare local environmental records to global climate data

This is the first project to apply this integrated strategy to early human sites in East Africa. The results have the potential to transform our understanding of how climate shaped human evolution, and to serve as a model for correlating fossil evidence with global environmental change worldwide.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

As part of the ABCCycle project, I have actively developed expertise in cyclostratigraphy and paleomagnetic analyses. I completed specialized training, including hands-on work with Acycle, a powerful open-source software that is comprehensive for paleoclimate time series analysis, with a special focus on cyclostratigraphy, gaining practical skills in estimating Milankovitch cycles and interpreting sedimentary records within orbital frameworks.


In parallel, I trained in Relative Paleointensity (RPI) analysis, including the use of the Paleointensity.org platform for data processing and visualization.
My laboratory work has involved conducting thousands of paleomagnetic and rock magnetic measurements on core samples from the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP). I have been directly involved in sample preparation, measurement, quality control, and data interpretation. The resulting datasets are currently being prepared for scientific publication.
My laboratory work has involved conducting thousands of paleomagnetic and rock magnetic measurements from several cores of the Hominin Sites Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP), including.
These measurements have been analyzed and are currently being prepared for scientific publication.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Summary of Main Results
1. RPI/NRM/ARM Data Not Suitable for Paleo-Intensity Reconstruction
2. Signals Reflect Astronomical Forcing, Not Geomagnetic Field
3. Astronomical Tuning and Chronology Potential:
The RPI/NRM/ARM and related proxies can be aligned with astronomical target curves to build astrochronological models. Despite being unusable for paleointensity, the records are useful for correlating lake sediment cores based on climatic cyclicity.
4. Recommendation for Future Studies:
Spectral analysis should be a standard step in evaluating RPI records and Reliable RPI records should not exhibit strong astronomical cyclicity; its presence indicates a climatic overprint. However, even when not valid for paleointensity, RPI/NRM/ARM records may still be valuable for building regional chronologies based on orbital cycles.

The Following manuscripts have been published during the period of the Marie Curie Fellowship:

Astronomical climate forcing and tuning of the Baringo core (HSPDP-BTB13-1A), Kenya.
B R Spiering, M J Sier, F J. Hilgen
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Accepted with minor revisions

Magnetic mineralogy of the Baringo core (HSPDP-BTB13-1A, Kenya) shows astronomical forcing with implications for retrieving meaningful paleointensity.
M J Sier, B Spiering, M J Dekkers, F J Hilgen.
Open Research Europe 5, 177 (2025).

Early Oldowan Technology Thrived During Pliocene Environmental Change in the Turkana Basin, Kenya.
D R Braun, D V Palcu, L L Advokaat, W Archer, N G Baraki, M Biernat, E Beaudoin, A K Behrensmeyer, R Bobe, K Elmes, F Forrest, A S Hammond, L Jovane, R N Kinyanjui, A P de Martini, P Mason, A McGrosky, J Mung, E K Ndeima, D B Patterson, J S Reeves, D C Roman, M J Sier, P Srivastava, K Tuosto, K Uno, A Villaseñor, J G Wynn, J W K Harris, S Carvalho.
In Press Nature Communications.

Hominin glacial-stage occupation 712,000 to 424,000 years ago at Fordwich Pit, Old Park (Canterbury, UK).A Key, J Clark, T Lauer, J Bates, M J Sier, C Nichols, C Martín-Ramos, A Cebeiro, E Williams, S Kim, F Stileman, A Mika, M Pope, D Bridgland, D Redhouse, M Leonardi, G M Smith, T Proffitt.).
Nature Ecology and Evolution 9, 1781–1790 (2025).
Comment in science: https://www.science.org/content/article/human-ancestors-braved-england-s-ice-covered-northlands-440-000-years-ago

ICDP workshop on the Lake Victoria Drilling Project (LVDP): scientific drilling of the world's largest tropical lake.
MA Berke, DJ Peppe, and the LVDP team
Scientific Drilling 33 (1), 21–31, 2024

The dawn of the Late Villafranchian: Paleoenvironment and age of the Pantalla paleontological site (Italy; Early Pleistocene).
M Cherin, G Basilici, M Duval, Q Shao, MJ Sier, JM Parés, E Gliozzi, I Mazzini, D Magri, F Di Rita, D A Iurino, B Azzarà, G Margaritelli, F Pazzaglia.
Quaternary Science Reviews 316, 108279, 2023

The first Miocene fossils from coastal woodlands in the southern East African Rif.t
R Bobe, V Aldeias, Z Alemseged, RL Anemone, W Archer, G Aumaître, M K Bamford, D B L Bourlès, M Doyle Boyd, D R Braun, C Capelli, J d’Oliveira Coelho, J M Habermann, J J Head, K Keddadouche, K Kupczik, A Lebatard, T Lüdecke, A Macôa, F I Martínez, J Mathe, C Mendes, L Meira Paulo, M Pinto, D Presnyakova, T A Püschel, F Tátá Regala, M Sier, M Joana Ferreira da Silva, M Stalmans, S Carvalho.
Iscience 26 (9), 2023

Pliocene hominins from East Turkana were associated with mesic environments in a semiarid basin.
A Villaseñor, KT Uno, RN Kinyanjui, AK Behrensmeyer, R Bobe, ...
Journal of Human Evolution 180, 103385

The Following talks, posters, and abstract have been given during the period of the Marie Curie Fellowship:

Correlating two African lake cores by means of cyclostratigraphy and relative paleo-intensity.
Mark Sier
I Foro CENIEH 2025 31st of January 2025, Burgos, Spain.

Relative Paleo Intensity record of the Hominin Sites Paleolakes Drilling Project Baringo core shows orbital cyclicity.
Mark Sier
18th Castle Meeting 2024, New trends on Paleo-, Rock- and Environmental Magnetism. June 30th – July 6th 2024, Utrecht, The Netherlands

The Laschamps event (~ 41 ka BP) straddles the Mousterian-Châtelperronian transition in Western Europe
MJ Sier, OT Lygre, I Djakovic, M Soressi, European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE) 11 - 15th September 2024 Zagreb, Croatia.

Hominin Technology Flourished amid Pliocene Environmental Variance in the Turkana Basin
Dan V Palcu, David R Braun, Eldert Advokaat, Will S Archer, René Bobe, Susana Carvalho, Frances Forrest, Ashley S Hammond, Rahab Kinyanjui, Ana Martini, Paul Mason, David B Patterson, Mark Sier, Priyeshu Srivastava, Kevin Uno, Amelia Villaseñor, Jonathan Wynn, Luigi Jovane, John WK Harris
EGU24, 14–19 April 2024, Vienna, Austria

Relative Paleo Intensity and cyclostratigraphy as a tools to correlate the Hominin Sites Paleolakes Drilling Project Baringo core and Afar cores.
M Sier, F Hilgen, L Lourens, JC Guerra, S Verkooijen
EGU24, 14–19 April 2024, Vienna, Austria