Title Information

Münchner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen
Reihe A: Geologie und Paläontologie

Volume 8

PICKFORD, Martin: Cainozoic Paleontological Sites of Western Kenya 1986. [in English] – 151 pp., 118 figures, 23 plates, 11 maps. 29.7 x 21.0 cm. Paperback ISBN 978-3-923871-10-0 Euro 45.00 series: MGA, Reihe A: Geologie und Paläontologie order now

Abstract

The West Kenya fossil deposits have yielded well over 100,000 fossils from more than 300 discrete fossil sites over a period in excess of seventy years of scientific research. These fossils and the sites from which they came have been the subject of over 500 scientific articles. In short, the data base has reached a point where it could be in danger of becoming too large to handle, especially if details concerning provenience of fossils, details of the location of sites and other factors are forgotten or misreported. Indeed, there has been a long history of uncertainty with regard to some of the fossils and the sites from which they came.

This volume is the result of 10 years research aimed specifically at recording all the known fossil sites in West Kenya and to determining the provenience of the fossils housed in various institutions in the world. There remains some doubt about the detailed provenience of some of the fossils, but many of the old collections could, with reasonable confidence, be placed back into their proper localities. A wide range of problems was encountered during the research, and these have been enumerated in the text in order that future researchers may avoid making the same mistakes, or of propagating errors already in the literature. Since the locality from which a fossil was collected is the departure point for all palaeontological studies, it is hoped that this volume will find wide readership among those scientists interested in the Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene fossil record of Western Kenya.