Abstract
Reconstructions of Plio-Pleistocene habitats and lake levels from a brief interval (∼200,000 yr) of hominid-bearing sediments from Bed I and lower Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, are for the first time integrated with climatic data from the deep-sea in order to examine the effect of largescale climatic events in East Africa. The period of densely vegetated habitats and wet conditions at Olduval at ∼1.82 myr shows a best fit with a period of northern hemisphere warming as evidenced by oxygen isotopes from deep-sea core V28-239 from the western Pacific. This environmental response is similar to that witnessed in East Africa during the period of warming climates associated with deglaciation at ∼10,000–8,000 yr.