Turkana basin in Kenya (Image: Plainpicture/Cavan Images/Cavan Images)

Always dreamed of being a fossil hunter? Now’s your chance – and you don’t have to leave home.

A citizen science project called FossilFinder is asking volunteers to look through high-resolution photos of the Turkana basin in Kenya taken from drones and kites, with the hope that they will spot newly exposed fossils before they erode away.


Many early human fossils have been found in this desert region, including the famous 1.5-million-year-old hominin skeleton known as “Turkana Boy”. The first set of images, which cover a fossil hotspot to the east of Lake Turkana, cover only a tiny part of the region.

Assessing the photos involves checking the image quality, identifying rock types and then pinpointing any potential fossils or stone tools. There are plenty of photos to show you what to look for, and the website is simple to use.

Would-be fossil hunters can get started straight away – there is no need to register to use the site, but if you want credit for your discoveries, you can sign up. There’s also a forum, where volunteers can ask questions and get feedback on potential finds.

Fossil jackpot

There is, of course, a chance that you could be the first to spot the bones of one of our distant relatives – any promising-looking finds will be followed up on the ground.

But the most common fossils are things such as root casts, snails and fish vertebrae. Spotting them matters too: the main aim of the project, which was set up by the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya and the University of Bradford, UK, is to get a better understanding of the geology and the past environment.

Dinosaur fans will have to wait, however. Although some rocks in the Turkana basin date back to the dinosaur era, there are no plans to put pictures of them online just yet.

FossilFinder users can hunt for ancient bones from their armchair (Image: fossilfinder.org)