This project aims at identifying the influence of the EMPT on the East African paleoecosystems through the multidisciplinary study of stratigraphic successions in Tanzania. In particular, the research will focus on the world-famous site of Olduvai Gorge, one of the most important paleontological and archeological sites in the continent. The rich record of fossils and stone tools found in the Olduvai succession allows to reconstruct almost uninterruptedly the evolution of East African ecosystems in the last 2 Ma, as well as some crucial phases of human evolution. Although Olduvai has been known by the scientific community for more than a century, the vast majority of works have been concentrated on the lower part of its stratigraphic succession. On the contrary, this project will focus for the first time on the middle-upper part of the succession, to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental contexts and changes during the EMPT and specifically in the interval around 1 Ma.

To reach this goal, selected outcrops/areas of the Gorge will be analyzed through a multidisciplinary approach integrating data from paleontology and paleoanthropology, archeology, taphonomy, sedimentology and stratigraphy, paleopedology, and geochemistry.