Eleanor M. Williams

Glad it went well!

New fossils reveal the hand of Paranthropus boisei - Nature Analyses of newly discovered hand and foot bones of a Paranthropus boisei specimen provide insight into possible tool use and other palaeobiology characteristics among Plio-Pleistocene hominin species...

Paranthropus boisei is a human fossil cousin w/ giant jaws and teeth that lived in East Africa ~2.6 to 1.3 million years ago. Whether it could make & use tools has been a paleoanthropological mystery since the 1960s. Our new paper describes the first firmly associated hand and foot. 1/

Great time visiting Lucy and Selam in Prague this weekend! Amazing to see the original fossils, well worth the trip

Last week I matriculated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge to start my NERC-funded (CREATES DLA) PhD in Archaeology!

@caiuscollege.bsky.social
@cam.ac.uk
@cam-archaeology.bsky.social

We are hiring a Project Co-ordinator! 🚨

Are you extremely organised with great interpersonal skills?
Able to multitask efficiently?
Interested in African prehistory?
Keen to work with an enthusiastic team?
We want to hear from you!

Closing date: 17 October, 2025

Poster Session 2 #ESHE2025

83 wonderful posters. 169 in total.

Palaeotrails’ Jesse Martin & @martamlahr.bsky.social on detecting microevolutionary trends in fossil hominin populations.

When in Rome...

#Colosseum

Young Turkana herders guide camels across Kenya’s arid landscape near Lake Turkana at sunset.

Pastoralism remains central to survival in the Turkana of northwest Kenya, where heat and water scarcity pose constant challenges. New research uncovers the genetic signatures that underlie adaptation to arid living in this pastoralist community.

Learn more this week: https://scim.ag/4nxcJbx

When less is more: risk, reward and optimisation in Acheulean handaxe manufacture and the impact of skill As the most numerous manifestations of technology across the Palaeolithic record, linking stone tool artefacts to past hominin cognition and expertise…

Happy to share the first paper from my PhD! Open access in a special issue of JAS, 'The Mind in Deep Time: Interdisciplinary explorations of cognitive evolution'

When less is more: risk, reward and optimisation in Acheulean handaxe manufacture and the impact of skill

share.google/hj43OR6QWXtc...

Hominin glacial-stage occupation 712,000 to 424,000 years ago at Fordwich Pit, Old Park (Canterbury, UK) - Nature Ecology & Evolution The authors report Acheulean hominin occupation of eastern Britain during glacial marine isotope stages 17–16 and again in glacial marine isotope stage 12 via stone tools in sediments dated to 712,000...

Very much enjoyed working on this paper. An important site for #Palaeolithic archaeology in the UK.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Last sunrise in Turkana before heading back to Nairobi. What an incredible few months it's been!

#kenya #fieldwork
@palaeotrails.bsky.social

📣 PUBLISHED OPEN ACCESS 📣

In a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Cambridge researchers explore the role of skill for Lower Palaeolithic handaxe manufacture through flint knapping experiments.

👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...

🧵

Such good news! Really pleased for you @martamlahr.bsky.social! 🎉

Justus Erus Edung was only 25 years old when he discovered Kenyanthropus platyops in a team led by Prof. Meave Leakey in 1999.

This 3.5 million year old “flat-faced” skull quickly grabbed international headlines and changed the course of human evolution.

#fossils #turkana #humanevolution

3D scanning these beauties with Ng'ipalajem!
@palaeotrails.bsky.social

#handaxe #turkana

The joy of sorting LSA lithics from Turkana under the guidance of @robfoley.bsky.social

Follow us on Instagram for more www.instagram.com/palaeotrails...