Archaeologists are hunting for fossils in Kenya's Turkana Basin — and you can help
Calling all keen eyes: The University of Bradford and the Turkana Basin Institute have launched FossilFinder.org, a website that wants to enlist citizen scientists to help identify possible fossils and "cultural remains" at Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. And couch-potato amateur archaeologists, you're in luck: you don't even have to leave your couch to be a valuable member of the team.
Fossil Finder uses drones and kites to capture high-resolution images of the Turkana Basin, a 4 million-year-old "fossil hotspot" located in a difficult-to-traverse desert. Posting photos on the site allows for fossils that might get missed in a field survey to instead be spotted by people working from home.
The website is set up a like a game: An image pops up, and users are prompted to answer a series of questions about it. There's also an option to flag the photo for scientists, in case a fossil is spotted.
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Who knows, maybe you'll be the one to find something that changes the way we think about human history. Good luck and happy hunting!
