Generally speaking, scientists in different fields ask different questions when studying aspects of the natural world. These methods of inquiry help astronomers to study distant galaxies, or biologists to understand Earth’s ecosystems.
But sometimes, combining different fields of scientific inquiry can be a key way to bring new perspectives that help solve the mysteries of our world.
This interdisciplinary approach is exactly what led the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Associate Curator and Robert J. and Linnet E. Fritz Endowed Chair of Human Origins, Dr. Emma Finestone, and Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, Dr. Caitlin Colleary, to collaborate during a trip to Kenya this winter. During the trip, the scientists planned to visit the National Museums of Kenya (NMK), where they would analyze fossils from sites where Dr. Finestone has previously conducted anthropological fieldwork.
“This was a good opportunity to get the perspective of somebody who's in a different field and typically asks different questions,” Dr. Finestone said. “In paleontology, the methods and research questions are focused on different topics than in archaeology and biological anthropology.”
The latter are typically Dr. Finestone’s focus during her regular trips to Kenya, where she has traveled to conduct research for many years and where she is also a research associate at the National Museums of Kenya. Using archaeological fieldwork, Dr. Finestone studies topics such as how ancient human ancestors and relatives (hominins) made stone tools, what sorts of animals they were interacting with—and sometimes eating—as well as how ancient hominins were moving around the landscape.
This time, however, Dr. Finestone wanted to bring in Dr. Colleary’s paleontological perspective to explore what kind of new data could be extracted from the fossils—an area of expertise for Dr. Colleary.
Dr. Colleary’s research as a paleontologist focuses on molecular taphonomy—the molecules that preserve in fossilized bone. “I’m particularly interested in how something can even become a fossil,” said Dr. Colleary, “and what information these molecules have left behind about ancient animals and ecosystems.” By bringing that question into the research that Dr. Finestone has already been conducting in Kenya over several field seasons, Dr. Colleary brings new insights to those finds—as well as to collections at the National Museums of Kenya that have been a century in the making.
A NATURAL OVERLAP
Despite working in different disciplines, the two scientists deal with a lot of the same material—namely, fossils—albeit from different points of view.
“Since I’m an anthropologist, my research questions are specifically focused on hominins. I’m interested in linking fossils to hominin behavior,” said Dr. Finestone.
“I’m more interested in animals, especially the ones that are long extinct,” said Dr. Colleary. “And since I view the fossil record through the lens of molecular preservation, I’m really interested in what molecules we can detect and how we can interpret them to potentially answer questions we can’t address with morphology alone.”
By bridging those disciplines, the scientists hoped the trip would be the first step in coming up with research questions that are more multidisciplinary—allowing them to combine their interests, insights, and backgrounds to learn more about the ancient past.
Dr. Colleary noted how her research focus aligns well with a project that spans multiple disciplines. “What’s cool about my work is that even though I’m a paleontologist, my focus is really broad,” said Dr. Colleary. “I’ve studied everything from mammoths to dinosaurs. My research can involve any time period, any type of animal—as long as it has bones.”
A RADIOACTIVE MYSTERY
Among the collections the scientists aimed to examine in Kenya were some surprising finds. At one of the localities where Dr. Finestone has been working for several years, researchers have uncovered an assemblage of fossils belonging to Theropithecus oswaldi—an extinct species most closely related to gelada monkeys, estimated to have lived between 3.8 and 0.4 million years ago.
“They were much larger than modern geladas,” noted Dr. Finestone. “Some of them were human-sized.”
The locality where the fossils were discovered is also the type site for those monkeys—the site where the species was first named and described more than 100 years ago. But these Theropithecus monkeys were also interesting taphonomically (referring to the study of how an organism decays and becomes a fossil). The fossils, hundreds of which have been found at the site, are radioactive and tinted green.
While scientists suspect the fossils became radioactive because they took up uranium in the groundwater, the number of Theropithecus fossils found in this locality is also rare—as is the fact that they account for most of the animals within the assemblage, and are more radioactive than the rest of the fauna found nearby, such as antelope and pigs.
“It’s a mystery,” says Dr. Finestone. “Likely, the reason has to do with the conditions when the monkeys died and became buried.”
“Something different must have happened to the monkeys,” Dr. Colleary added. “And so that’s one of the things we’re interested in figuring out.”
The fossils, Dr. Finestone notes, are remarkably well preserved. They were discovered as partially articulated skeletons rather than isolated bone fragments. The fossils' condition led the researchers to suspect that at least one part of the story involved the rapid burial of the monkeys after their deaths, reducing their exposure to the elements—and the gnawing teeth of other animals—for a long period of time. Dr. Colleary is hopeful that the fossils are exceptionally preserved at the molecular level as well.
While the mystery remains to be solved with further research, Dr. Finestone hopes that bringing in Dr. Colleary’s expertise on taphonomy will soon bring them closer to understanding what happened to these monkeys.
A REWARDING COLLABORATION
While at the National Museums of Kenya, the two scientists divided their time between the paleontology and archaeology collections, working alongside the Kenyan museum staff to examine hundreds of fossils—and for Dr. Finestone, more than 110 stone tools. One goal was to identify fauna, which was achieved by comparing fossils with the museum’s osteology collections, housed in what Dr. Colleary described as “a room full of bones and skulls.”
To help identify the fossils, you “compare your fossil with the collection of modern animal bones,” said Dr. Finestone.
“Mostly, we were looking at a lot of bovids,” explained Dr. Colleary—referring to the family of cloven-hoofed animals that includes antelope and buffalo. Bovids are abundant in Africa and tend to make up a significant portion of the fossils in an assemblage.
As they compared fossils to the osteological collections, Drs. Finestone and Colleary also compiled a list of all the animals that have been collected from the sites. “When you’re working in the field, you don’t have time to do the faunal analysis,” Dr. Finestone explained. “As a fossil is coming out of the ground, you’re doing a very general, ‘Okay, it’s a tooth, it looks like a bovid’—but not down to the family or genus level.”
The goal was to get as much information as possible out of each fossil—helping to paint a picture of the site’s environment, what animals lived there, how they may have interacted with ancient humans, and trends in animal communities that were present at that time in eastern Africa.
Even among these fossils, there were some surprising discoveries.
“The most common animal we found in our fossil sample was an extinct ancient wildebeest cousin (Rusingoryx) that shares surprising similarities with dinosaurs,” said Dr. Finestone. “They are the only mammals to have a bizarre nasal structure that is otherwise only seen in a group of dinosaurs—an example of convergent evolution. Their nasal structure is domed and hollow, likely enabling them to produce low, trumpeting vocalizations.” To find a species that shared similarities with dinosaurs was a funny coincidence, given the overlap between Dr. Finestone’s and Dr. Colleary’s backgrounds.
Other unusual finds included a buffalo tooth (rare among the other finds), some large bones belonging to hippos, and the jaw of a carnivore, which turned out to belong to a dog relative that lived 100,000 years ago.
AN INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE
During the trip to Kenya, it was important to the scientists that they didn’t just gather information—they also wanted to exchange knowledge and generate discussions across institutions. To that end, they hosted a workshop on collection conservation for the National Museums of Kenya staff, volunteers, and interns.
When developing the workshop, they wanted to focus on topics that were most relevant to the collections managers and fossil preparators. “Often, when international researchers give talks or workshops at their museum, it's geared toward the scientists and researchers at the National Museums of Kenya,” said Dr. Colleary. “This was geared toward the people who are working hands-on with the collection every day.”
The group also discussed how to mitigate collection concerns, using the case study of pyrite disease—a chemical reaction that can destroy specimens, and a challenge that affects the Museum’s vertebrate paleontology collection but can also affect invertebrate and plant fossils. (In 2023, Dr. Colleary was awarded a competitive National Science Foundation Grant to support the Museum’s preservation efforts and help protect significant fossils from the Cleveland Shale.)
The conversation continued with a group discussion about common collection challenges, a walkthrough of the paleontology collections, and a reminder of the importance of conserving collections for molecular studies—a specialty of Dr. Colleary’s, and an important factor when museum collections are used for molecular analyses.
Dr. Finestone also took the opportunity to share with the NMK staff the many places where casts of fossils from their museum are featured in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s new galleries. These include the famous skeleton of Nariokotome Boy, also called Turkana Boy, a member of the species Homo erectus who lived 1.6 million years ago. This Kenyan fossil is on display in the What About Us? section of the Evolving Life Wing, with information about its discovery by the famous Kenyan paleontologist Kamoya Kimeu. These examples illustrate how the National Museums of Kenya collections and research are represented all the way in Cleveland, helping to teach people about our shared history on Earth.
Ultimately, the goal of the workshop was to exchange knowledge about how museums conserve collections, the common problems they share, and how they can think through solutions and support one another. As Dr. Finestone said, “The workshop was step one in further opening up these lines of communication between our institutions.”
A PROMISING PARTNERSHIP
Overall, the trip was a fantastic opportunity to gain new perspectives, exchange knowledge, and strengthen international partnerships.
One goal the team successfully achieved was to organize and create a database of the fossils and artifacts coming out of the Kenyan sites so that while in Cleveland, Drs. Finestone and Colleary can start to get an idea of both the animals and stone tools that were present.
The bigger-picture objective, however, was to start a collaboration with Kenyan researchers and explore avenues for future research, strengthening the relationship between the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the National Museums of Kenya. And in addition to Dr. Finestone and Dr. Elizabeth “Ebeth” Sawchuk, the Museum’s Associate Curator of Human Evolution, Dr. Colleary has now become the third Museum scientist to serve as a research associate of the National Museums of Kenya—further strengthening those ties and paving the way for future collaborations.
One last highlight of the trip? “Amazing coffee in Kenya,” said Dr. Finestone.
