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The paleoanthropological research potential of the sediments surrounding Mt. Galili in the Afar State of Ethiopia was first established by Y. Haile-Selassie in the late 1990s. Subsequently, a team led by H. Seidler conducted a series of field campaigns through 2010. Together, these projects discovered a number of valuable fossils, including hominins, that verified the importance of the area and provided a biochronological and geochronological framework for the sediments that span the ca. 2.5 Ma to >4.5 Ma period. Field research of the Mt. Galili Formation was reinitiated by our team in 2016. We conducted a short 13-day field survey of the area with the goals of collecting additional paleontological, geological, and archeological materials to better understand the biotic context during this period and provide additional age constraints on the deposits. Much of the survey focused on sediments on the middle Pliocene-aged Shabeley Laag Member with short surveys of the older Dhidinley and Lasdanan Mbrs. Altogether, a diverse array of terrestrial non-hominin (especially monkeys, suids, proboscideans, and bovids) and hominin fauna were collected. As noted by previous workers, the sediments are dominated by fluvial and lacustrine deposits with numerous intercalated air-fall tuffs and intrusive basalts. A number of geological specimens were collected and exported and await radiometric dating and tephrostratigraphic correlation analysis. Here, we will present preliminary results from the 2016 field survey. 

The paleoanthropological research potential of the sediments surrounding Mt. Galili in the Afar State of Ethiopia was first established by Y. Haile-Selassie in the late 1990s. Subsequently, a team led by H. Seidler conducted a series of field campaigns through 2010. Together, these projects discovered a number of valuable fossils, including hominins, that verified the importance of the area and provided a biochronological and geochronological framework for the sediments that span the ca. 2.5 Ma to >4.5 Ma period. Field research of the Mt. Galili Formation was reinitiated by our team in 2016. We conducted a short 13-day field survey of the area with the goals of collecting additional paleontological, geological, and archeological materials to better understand the biotic context during this period and provide additional age constraints on the deposits. Much of the survey focused on sediments on the middle Pliocene-aged Shabeley Laag Member with short surveys of the older Dhidinley and Lasdanan Mbrs. Altogether, a diverse array of terrestrial non-hominin (especially monkeys, suids, proboscideans, and bovids) and hominin fauna were collected. As noted by previous workers, the sediments are dominated by fluvial and lacustrine deposits with numerous intercalated air-fall tuffs and intrusive basalts. A number of geological specimens were collected and exported and await radiometric dating and tephrostratigraphic correlation analysis. Here, we will present preliminary results from the 2016 field survey. Support for the project was from NSF BCS-1519059 (SWS) and from the University of Arizona (JQ).