Baylor Researcher Pushes Back Africa’s Prehistoric Timeline by Over 10M Years

Dan Peppe, PhD

Since 2013, Daniel Peppe, PhD, associate professor of geosciences at Baylor University and an international team of researchers have focused their research on understanding how ancient environments influenced the evolution of early apes in eastern Africa.

As participants exchanged information and expertise about geological features, isotopes and plant and ape fossils found at the sites, the bigger picture came into focus. The paradigm that during the early Miocene period equatorial Africa was completely forested was wrong.

Further, the result of this decade long research pushes back the oldest evidence of C4 grass-dominated habitats in Africa – and globally – by more than 10 million years, calling for revised palaeoecological interpretations of the development of plants and mammals.