Excavating deep earth cores and investigating geological events to examine how global climate affects human evolution
►Paleoecology and Paleoenvironments
Drilled long-cores from five ancient East African lake beds will show how environmental change impacted availability of critical resources to human ancestors over the lat four million years. Field and lab work seek to reconstruct the ecology of fossil animal communities to provide insights on the adaptations of early hominin populations across ancient landscapes.
Research Projects
Geoinformatics-based Data Integration for the Study of Pliocene Fossil-bearing Strata of the Hadar Basin (Afar Ethiopia)
IHO is pioneering a cyberinfrastructure of field data, computer hardware and software, and GIS visualization technology to modernize field-data collection and scientific hypothesis-testing at fossil- and artifact-bearing sites. Collaboration with ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration.
Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project
Collects drill cores from paleolake sediments adjacent to fossil and artifact sites to assemble high-resolution paleoclimatic records between 4 and 1 myr ago, linking records of evolutionary and local-to-global environmental change. Collaboration with ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and The University of Arizona.
Tephra Lab
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Major Funding
National Science Foundation (EAR-SGP) ($1,034,236; ASU component=$243,888). 2012.
Collaborative Research—The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project: Acquiring a High-resolution Paleoenvironmental Context of Human Evolution.
PIs: C. Campisano (lead), R. Arrowsmith, J. Wynn, M. Umer, A. Asrat.
National Science Foundation (BCS-PA) ($305,191; ASU component = $239,745). 2012.
Collaborative Research—Paleoanthropological Investigations of the Ledi-Geraru Hominin Site (Afar, Ethiopia).
PIs: C. Campisano (lead), K. Reed, R. Arrowsmith.
International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) ($1,000,000; ASU component $XXX). 2011.
The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP): Using Scientific Drilling to Understand the Paleoclimate Context of Human Evolution.
PIs: A. Cohen (lead–The University of Arizona) and 18 co-PIs, including C. Campisano.
ASU Intellectual Fusion Investment Fund: Late Lessons from Early History Transdisciplinary Research Initiative ($398,038). 2008–2012.
Geoinformatics-based Data Integration for the Study of Pliocene Fossil-bearing Strata of the Hadar Basin (Afar, Ethiopia).
Co-PIs: R. Arrowsmith, C. Campisano, W. Kimbel.
Notable Publications
Geological summary of the Busidima Formation (Plio-Pleistocene) at the Hadar Paleoanthropological Site, Afar Depression, Ethiopia.
C.J. Campisano. Journal of Human Evolution. 2012. 62: 338–352.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248411001254
In The Geological Context of Human Evolution in the Horn of Africa. 2008. Geological Society of America Special Paper. C. Campisano, author of five chapters with various authors.
Connecting local environmental sequence to global climate patterns: Evidence from the hominin-bearing Hadar Formation, Ethiopia.
C. Campisano and C.S. Feibel. Journal of Human Evolution. 2007. 53: 515–527.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248407001546
Related Links
Hadar Geoinformatics Project https://iho.asu.edu/research/HGP
Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project blog: http://hspdp.asu.edu/