Olduvai Gorge Museum, the biggest natural history and scientific research facility in East Africa is set for an official opening this weekend by the Tanzania’s Vice President, Samia Suluhu Hassan.
The grand opening of the Museum which is rightly located at the excavation site of Olduvai Gorge and near Laetoli Footprints will open up a new chapter of the milestone discovery of the evidence of the first humans in the world.
Olduvai Gorge is a site in Tanzania that holds the earliest evidence of the existence of human ancestors. Paleoanthropologists have found hundreds of fossilized bones and stone tools in the area dating back millions of years, leading them to conclude that humans evolved in Africa.
The excavation site is located in the Great Rift Valley, between the Ngorongoro Crater and the famous Serengeti National Parks. The gorge was formed about 30,000 years ago by aggressive geological activity and streams which erupted through volcanic activity.
Dr. Louis Leakey and his wife Mary are known as the first family of paleontology in East Africa after making a great achievement in a discovery of the skull of the first human being at Olduvai Gorge in 1959, almost 60 years today.
Louis was born in Kenya, where his English parents were missionaries. He would often uncover prehistoric stone tools while he was out for bird watching. After graduating from University in England, he joined a fossil-finding expedition in Tanzania, which sparked his interest in human origins.
Extensive digging at the Olduvai Gorge revealed what was then the earliest known living floor of the primitive man.
Discovery of the origin of man at Olduvai Gorge was accidentally made by a German butterfly collector, Professor Kattwinke in 1911 when found a number of fossil bones of the extinct three-toed horse, Hipparion, which he took back with him to Berlin in Germany.
Professor Kattwinke aroused great interest in Germany and later inspired Professor Hans Reck in 1923 to make an expedition to Olduvai Gorge where he stayed in the site for three months and collected a great number of important fossil remains, but failed to recognize any tools of early man.
Dr. Louis Leakey had seen the collections from Olduvai Gorge in the Berlin Museum. In 1931, after the World War 1, Leakey organized an expedition to the Gorge and invited professor Reck to be a member of the party.
The history of human origin was written after Mary Leakey discovered the skull of the early man at the Olduvai Gorge in 1959 while searching for fossils washed out on the slopes of the deposits.
Mary stumbled on a small part of the bone behind the ear which had been partly exposed by erosion. She discovered the skull of a hominid that was crashed and broken into hundreds of fragments, which it has been possible to reassemble into an almost complete skull of the earliest man on earth, dated over 1.75 million years ago.
Extensive digging at the Olduvai Gorge revealed what was then the earliest known living floor of the primitive man. Mary later discovered the Laetoli footprints that were more than 3.75 million years old.
Today, the Olduvai Gorge is a place of early history of man and which attracts thousands of visitors each year to see the origin of our ancestors who lived over 1.75 million years ago.
“We are naturally proud that Tanzania was the site of this significant discovery,” once said Dr. Freddy Manongi, the Chief Conservator for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area where excavations are still taking place.
Tourists, academicians, researchers, students and primary school children from around the world pay several visits to the excavation site at Olduvai Gorge, the actual place of the discovery of the remains of the early man.
Discovery of the origin of man at Olduvai Gorge, the large numbers of wildlife in the Ngorongoro Crater and the presence of Maasai cattle herders have all, made Ngorongoro best known as the “Last Garden of Eden” and the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”
Natural history scientists believe that the earliest man had a brain about 40 percent the size of modern man, were much more muscular, and measured about four to four-and-a-half feet tall. They may have primarily lived in wooded areas, eating grubs, meat, and plants.
Visiting Olduvai Gorge is such a lifetime moment where you can see, experience and touch the ground where genetic and fossil evidence of archaic Homo sapiens evolved to anatomically modern humans solely in Africa.
Olduvai Gorge also remains the national and international icon of human origin studies and has been declared by the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) as a world heritage site.
The excellent condition of the skull allowed scientists to date the beginnings of mankind to about two million years ago and to verify that human evolution began not in Asia, as previously thought, but in Africa. In keeping with the significance of this information, Olduvai Gorge is now known as “The Cradle of Mankind.”
At Laetoli, west of Ngorongoro Crater, hominid footprints are preserved in volcanic rock 3.6 million years old and represent some of the earliest signs of mankind in the world.
Three separate tracks of a small-brained upright walking early hominid, the Australopithecus afarensis, with a height of about 1.2 to 1.4 meters high, were found. Imprints of these are displayed in the Olduvai Gorge museum.
More advanced descendants of Laetoli’s hominids were found further north, buried in the layers of the 100 meters deep gorge.
Louis and Mary Leakey further discovered through their excavations, four different kinds of hominid, showing a gradual increases in brain size and in the complexity of their stone tools.
The first skull of Zinjanthropus, commonly known as ‘Nutcracker Man’ who lived about 1.75 million years ago, was found here. The most important findings in Leakeys’ milestone discovery of the origin of man are Homo habilis, Zinjathropus and the Laetoli footprints.
Leakeys had discovered several extinct vertebrates, including the 25 million-year old proconsul primate, one of the first and few fossil ape skulls ever found in the world.
Archaeological expedition and discoveries made by Dr. Leakey and his wife Mary in Tanzania had changed the knowledge of the evolution of mankind and the entire history of the origin of man.
The grand opening of the Museum which is rightly located at the excavation site of Olduvai Gorge and near Laetoli Footprints will open up a new chapter of the milestone discovery of the evidence of the first humans in the world.
Olduvai Gorge is a site in Tanzania that holds the earliest evidence of the existence of human ancestors. Paleoanthropologists have found hundreds of fossilized bones and stone tools in the area dating back millions of years, leading them to conclude that humans evolved in Africa.
The excavation site is located in the Great Rift Valley, between the Ngorongoro Crater and the famous Serengeti National Parks. The gorge was formed about 30,000 years ago by aggressive geological activity and streams which erupted through volcanic activity.
Dr. Louis Leakey and his wife Mary are known as the first family of paleontology in East Africa after making a great achievement in a discovery of the skull of the first human being at Olduvai Gorge in 1959, almost 60 years today.
Louis was born in Kenya, where his English parents were missionaries. He would often uncover prehistoric stone tools while he was out for bird watching. After graduating from University in England, he joined a fossil-finding expedition in Tanzania, which sparked his interest in human origins.
Extensive digging at the Olduvai Gorge revealed what was then the earliest known living floor of the primitive man.
Discovery of the origin of man at Olduvai Gorge was accidentally made by a German butterfly collector, Professor Kattwinke in 1911 when found a number of fossil bones of the extinct three-toed horse, Hipparion, which he took back with him to Berlin in Germany.
Professor Kattwinke aroused great interest in Germany and later inspired Professor Hans Reck in 1923 to make an expedition to Olduvai Gorge where he stayed in the site for three months and collected a great number of important fossil remains, but failed to recognize any tools of early man.
Dr. Louis Leakey had seen the collections from Olduvai Gorge in the Berlin Museum. In 1931, after the World War 1, Leakey organized an expedition to the Gorge and invited professor Reck to be a member of the party.
The history of human origin was written after Mary Leakey discovered the skull of the early man at the Olduvai Gorge in 1959 while searching for fossils washed out on the slopes of the deposits.
Mary stumbled on a small part of the bone behind the ear which had been partly exposed by erosion. She discovered the skull of a hominid that was crashed and broken into hundreds of fragments, which it has been possible to reassemble into an almost complete skull of the earliest man on earth, dated over 1.75 million years ago.
Extensive digging at the Olduvai Gorge revealed what was then the earliest known living floor of the primitive man. Mary later discovered the Laetoli footprints that were more than 3.75 million years old.
Today, the Olduvai Gorge is a place of early history of man and which attracts thousands of visitors each year to see the origin of our ancestors who lived over 1.75 million years ago.
“We are naturally proud that Tanzania was the site of this significant discovery,” once said Dr. Freddy Manongi, the Chief Conservator for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area where excavations are still taking place.
Tourists, academicians, researchers, students and primary school children from around the world pay several visits to the excavation site at Olduvai Gorge, the actual place of the discovery of the remains of the early man.
Discovery of the origin of man at Olduvai Gorge, the large numbers of wildlife in the Ngorongoro Crater and the presence of Maasai cattle herders have all, made Ngorongoro best known as the “Last Garden of Eden” and the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”
Natural history scientists believe that the earliest man had a brain about 40 percent the size of modern man, were much more muscular, and measured about four to four-and-a-half feet tall. They may have primarily lived in wooded areas, eating grubs, meat, and plants.
Visiting Olduvai Gorge is such a lifetime moment where you can see, experience and touch the ground where genetic and fossil evidence of archaic Homo sapiens evolved to anatomically modern humans solely in Africa.
Olduvai Gorge also remains the national and international icon of human origin studies and has been declared by the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) as a world heritage site.
The excellent condition of the skull allowed scientists to date the beginnings of mankind to about two million years ago and to verify that human evolution began not in Asia, as previously thought, but in Africa. In keeping with the significance of this information, Olduvai Gorge is now known as “The Cradle of Mankind.”
At Laetoli, west of Ngorongoro Crater, hominid footprints are preserved in volcanic rock 3.6 million years old and represent some of the earliest signs of mankind in the world.
Three separate tracks of a small-brained upright walking early hominid, the Australopithecus afarensis, with a height of about 1.2 to 1.4 meters high, were found. Imprints of these are displayed in the Olduvai Gorge museum.
More advanced descendants of Laetoli’s hominids were found further north, buried in the layers of the 100 meters deep gorge.
Louis and Mary Leakey further discovered through their excavations, four different kinds of hominid, showing a gradual increases in brain size and in the complexity of their stone tools.
The first skull of Zinjanthropus, commonly known as ‘Nutcracker Man’ who lived about 1.75 million years ago, was found here. The most important findings in Leakeys’ milestone discovery of the origin of man are Homo habilis, Zinjathropus and the Laetoli footprints.
Leakeys had discovered several extinct vertebrates, including the 25 million-year old proconsul primate, one of the first and few fossil ape skulls ever found in the world.
Archaeological expedition and discoveries made by Dr. Leakey and his wife Mary in Tanzania had changed the knowledge of the evolution of mankind and the entire history of the origin of man.
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