Dr. Rahab N. KINYANJUI

I am a paleoecologist interested in studying past vegetation cover and structure in eastern African region to understand paleoenvironments and their role in shaping past landscapes, long-term human-environment interactions and significance in evolution history. I study plants microfossils (pollen, phytoliths) and macrofossils (leaves, wood) derived from both lacustrine and terrestrial sediments. I am currently the group leader of paleobotany at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany.

Research Projects

Max Planck Institute Projects

• Cultural Innovation in the Middle and Later Stone Age of East Africa: Panga Ya Saidi (PYS), Kenya- PIs- Prof. Michael Petraglia, Dr. Nicole Boivin among others.
• Outreach and mentoring program (For young scientists and the local communities bordering prehistoric and palaeoecological sites)- proposed

National Museums of Kenya Projects

• Mapping Ancient Africa: Climate, Humans, and vegetation- (MAA-INQUA) project. This is an INQUA (International Union for Quaternary research Association) Coordinator, EA-Hub
• Paleontological Research in Kisumu and Kericho counties Kenya. NSF grant
• Using Palaeoecological proxies to determine anthropogenic impact on vegetation during Pre- colonial, Colonial and Post-colonial period in Kenya’s highlands- Case study, Aberdare Ranges- PI -British Ecological Society grant
• Olorgesailie- Oldo-Nyokie paleontological and Archaeological Project- Collaborator- NSF, Smithsonian Institution grants
•  Narok Palaeoanthrolopology Project: Collaborator-NGS grant
• Turkana Miocene Project (TMP): Collaborator-FRES-NSF grant

Publications

• Kinyanjui, R. N. (2018). Phytolith Analysed to Compare Changes in Vegetation Structure of Koobi Fora and Olorgesailie Basins through Mid-Pleistocene-Holocene periods, thesis (University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. 2018). https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/188776043.pdf
• Cultural Innovation in the Middle and Later Stone Age of East Africa: Panga Ya Saidi (PYS), Kenya- PIs- Prof. Michael Petraglia, Dr. Nicole Boivin among others.
• Outreach and mentoring program (For young scientists and the local communities bordering prehistoric and palaeoecological sites)- proposed
• Mapping Ancient Africa: Climate, Humans, and vegetation- (MAA-INQUA) project. This is an INQUA (International Union for Quaternary research Association) Coordinator, EA-Hub
• Paleontological Research in Kisumu and Kericho counties Kenya. NSF grant
• Using Palaeoecological proxies to determine anthropogenic impact on vegetation during Pre- colonial, Colonial and Post-colonial period in Kenya’s highlands- Case study, Aberdare Ranges- PI -British Ecological Society grant
• Olorgesailie- Oldo-Nyokie paleontological and Archaeological Project- Collaborator- NSF, Smithsonian Institution grants
•  Narok Palaeoanthrolopology Project: Collaborator-NGS grant
• Turkana Miocene Project (TMP): Collaborator-FRES-NSF grant
• Laura C. Bishop, Thomas W. Plummer, David R. Braun, Peter W. Ditchfield, Emily Goble Early, Fritz Hertel, Cristina Lemorini, James S. Oliver, Rick Potts, Thomas Vincent, Elizabeth Whitfield, and Rahab N. Kinyanjui 2022. Fauna and Paleoenvironments of the Homa Peninsula, Western Kenya. In: Reynold, Sally, C. and Bobe, René. African Paleoecology and Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 369.
• John Rowan, Patricia Princehouse, Rahab N. Kinyanjui, Kevin Uno 2021.Isaiah Odhiambo Nengo (1961–2022) Nature Ecology & Evolution 6(6):1-1. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01741-y
• Kinyanjui, Rahab N., Meadows, Michael, Gillson, Lindsey, Bamford, Marion K., Behrensmeyer, Anna K., Potts, Richard. 2021. Reconstructing vegetation history of the Olorgesailie Basin during the Middle to Late Pleistocene using phytolith data. In: Runge, Jürgen, Gosling, William D., Lézine, Anne-Marie, Scott, Louis., Quaternary Vegetation Dynamics – The African Pollen Database. London: CRC Press pp. 85-105. https://doi.org.10.1201/9781003162766-
• Marta, S.; Azzoni, R.S.; Fugazza, D.; Tielidze, L.; Chand, P.; Sieron, K.; Almond, P.; Ambrosini, R.; Anthelme, F.; Alviz Gazitúa, P.; et al. The Retreat of Mountain Glaciers since the Little Ice Age: A Spatially Explicit Database. Data 2021, 6, 107. https://doi.org/10.3390/data61001
• Ochungo, P., Veldtman, R., Kinyanjui, R., Abdel-Rahaman, E.M., Muli, E., Muturi, M.N.K., Lattorff, H.M.G., Landmann, T.L., 2021. Pollen diversity and protein content in differentially degraded semi-arid landscapes in Kenya. Journal of Apicultural Research Vol. 60:5. https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2021.1899656
• Lupien, R.L., Russell, J.M., Subramanian, A., Kinyanjui, R., Beverly, E.J., Uno, K., de Menocal, P., Dommain, R., 2021. Eastern African environmental variation and its role in the evolution and cultural change of Homo over the last 1 million years. Journal of Human Evolution 157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103028
• Ochungo, P., Veldtman, R., Kinyanjui, R., Abdel-Rahman, E. M., Muli, E., Muturi, N.K., Lattorff, H. M. G., Landmann, T. 2021. Pollen diversity and protein content in differentially degraded semi-arid landscapes in Kenya. Journal of Apicultural Research, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2021.1899656
• Mustaphi, C.J.C., Kinyanjui, R., Shoemaker, A., Mumbi, C., Muiruri, V., Marchant, L., Rucina, S.M. and Marchant, R. (2021). A 3000-year record of vegetation changes and fire at a high-elevation wetland on Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Quaternary Research, 99, 34–62. https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2020.76
• Potts, R., Dommain, R., Moerman, J.W., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Deino, A.L., Riedl, S., Beverly, E.J., Brown, E.T., Deocampo, D., Kinyanjui, R. and Lupien, R. (2020). Increased ecological resource variability during a critical transition in hominin evolution. Science advances, 6(43), eabc8975. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc8975
• Rucina, S.M., Muiruri, V.M., Kinyanjui, R.N., McGuiness, K., and Marchant, R. (2009). Late Quaternary vegetation and fire dynamics on Mount Kenya. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 283, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2009.08.008
• Potts, R., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Faith, J.T., Tyron, C.A., Brooks, A.S., Yellen, J.E., Deino, A.L., Kinyanjui, R., Clark, J.B., and Haradon, C.M., 2018, Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa: Science, v.360, p. 86-90. 10.1126/science.aao2200
• Marchant, R., Richer, S., Capitani, C., Courtney Mustaphi, C.J., Prendergast, M., Stump, D., Boles, O., ..Rahab N. Kinyanjui, ..et al., 2018. Drivers and trajectories of land cover change in East Africa: human and environmental interactions from 6000 years ago to present. Earth-Science Reviews178, 322–378. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344898215.pdf
• Kinyanjui, R.N. (2013). Phytolith Analysis as a Palaeoecological Tool for Reconstructing Mid-to Late-Pleistocene Environments in the Olorgesailie Basin, Kenya. (University of Cape Town, South Africa, Unpublished MSc thesis). http://www.cilt.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/192/Kinyanjui 2011.pdf
• Mercader, J., Astudillo, F., Barkworth, M., Bennett, T., Esselmont, C., Kinyanjui, R., Grossman, D.L., Simpson, S. and Walde, D., (2010). Poaceae phytoliths from the Niassa rift, Mozambique. Journal of Archaeological Science, 37(8), 1953–1967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.03.001
• R. Marchant, J. Finch, R. Kinyanjui, V. Muiruri, C. Mumbi, P. J. Platts and S. Rucina 2010. Paleoenvironmental Perspectives for sustainable development in East Africa. Clim. Past Discuss., 6, 1-45.
• Rucina, S.M, Muiruri, V.M, Kinyanjui, R.N., Mc Guiness, K. and Marchant, R.A 2009. Late Quaternary Vegetation and Fire Dynamics on Mount Kenya. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoeceology (283)(1) 1-14.