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Whole communities of ape-like creatures may have been killed in
volcanic disasters that struck East Africa 18 million years ago,
according to new research.
It follows a study of rock deposits close to the once active
volcano Kisingiri. These contained fossils of what is believed to be
a forerunner of humans called Proconsul.
These creatures livid in a semi-arid environment close to the
mountain and the research suggests they may have been caught by a
pyroclastic flow. These are clouds of hot gas, dust and rubble which
travel at huge speeds from erupting volcanoes.
Scientists, who report their findings in the Journal of the
Geological Society, believe the abundance of the hominoid fossils
may represent "death assemblages" - whole populations wiped out
simultaneously by "glowing cloud" eruptions.
Rock formation
It is thought that many of the victims found in Pompeii and
Herculaneum who died in the AD79 eruption of Vesuvius were killed by
pyroclastic flows.
The basis for the new revelation comes from Early Miocene age
rocks of the Rusinga Group, on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. The rock formation contains evidence of pyroclastic flows and
ash-fall deposits.
Research shows that in between eruptions, the landscape became
covered in mostly dry, deciduous, single-canopy woodland, with some
evergreen forest in restricted, low-lying areas.
Crucial link
Primates are thought to have evolved and thrived mainly in
forest habitats from the Eocene age, through part of the Miocene
age.
During the Miocene age, conditions became more open, culminating
in the expansion of grasslands.
The fossils of the Rusinga Formation form a crucial link between
the early primates of the forest habitats, and human forerunners of
the more open-country habitat.
The new research on the fossils shows that these human
forerunners lived in drier conditions than had been supposed, on a
landscape that experienced repeated volcanic eruption.
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