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David Gottlieb

This bone fragment from an unknown species was found in what was once the location of an ancient lake bed.

The dig team works in northwestern Kenya to uncover the fossilized remains of a now extinct ancestor of the hippopotamus.

During an excavation in 2021, Nengo (standing) and team members examine the remains of a six-million-year-old relative of today’s hippopotamus. One of Nengo’s professional goals is to develop more paleoscience expertise among his fellow East Africans.

Nengo (center) surveys a site in Kenya’s Napudet hills in June 2021. A 37-year veteran of fieldwork, he led a team in 2014 that discovered a 13-million-year-old skull of an extinct ape species, an ancestor of today’s apes and humans.

Looking for fossils, Isaiah Nengo (at left) sifts dirt with Faith Wambua of the National Museums of Kenya. When Nengo was in high school, a lecture at the museums by paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey sparked his interest. Today some of his finds are housed there.