Omo Kibish Formation

Study of the faunal remains (large mammal and fish faunas) and stone tools provided insight into the archeological associations of Homo sapiens and thereby their behaviors and the complex environmental contexts in which they lived and evolved.

[5][6][7] During Richard Leakey's original 1967 excavations several stone tools were found in association with Omo 1 at Kamoya's hominid site (KHS) but were not well described in the research literature.

In general high quality fine-grained cryptocrystalline silicate raw materials such as jasper, chert, chalcedony comprise the clear majority (60-90% ) across all sites.

Given that all but one rare occurring material could be found in contemporary gravel deposits in Member 1, it is predicted that early hominins obtained the necessary rock clasts to produce stone tools from local sources.

The fossil fauna sample falls short in terms of its limited representation of primates (only a single specimen) and carnivores; some bovid species are not represented at all.

Another notable find within the fossil fauna is that of Equus burchellii and E. grevyi because this may suggests that the Omo Kibish area has for a long time been an exception to the otherwise rare coexistence of the two species in a given habitat.

It is predicted that inadequate sample size rather than the existence of only current fauna during the late- middle Pleistocene may explain the absence of any extinct species within the Kibish Formation.

Although the Kibish ichthyofauna does not closely approximate the documented biodiversity of the extant community (9 out of the 37 known genera were identified), overall it is similar to the modern fauna in the region.