Stephen Hubbard

Abstract Questions about when early members of the genus Homo adapted to extreme environments like deserts and rainforests have traditionally focused on Homo sapiens. Here, we present multidisciplinary evidence from Engaji Nanyori in Tanzania’s Oldupai Gorge, revealing that Homo erectus thrived in hyperarid landscapes one million years ago.

The shift from highly amalgamated and laterally offset to aggradational and vertically stacked submarine channels is a pattern that has been widely recognized in seismic reflection datasets as well as in outcropping successions worldwide. However, the sedimentary and stratigraphic details of such an important part of channel evolution and its implications have not been discussed extensively.

1 INTRODUCTION Turbidity currents are the primary mechanism for transporting sediment, nutrients, organic carbon and pollutants to the deep ocean (Normark et al., 1993; Kane & Clare, 2019; Hage et al., 2022). Along their paths, turbidity currents often traverse topographically complex slopes, which influence their hydraulic properties and associated distribution of sediment (Mayall et al., 2006; Clark & Cartwright, 2011; Brooks et al., 2018; McArthur et al., 2022).