Dr. Brooks is a paleoanthropologist and Paleolithic archaeologist who has worked at numerous localities in Africa and in northern China. Dr. Brooks's recent field research has been on Africa's Middle Stone Age, and she has ongoing projects at MSA sites in the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia, and the Olorgesailie Basin, Southern Kenya Rift. She is an important figure in the debate over when, where, and why modern Homo sapiens originated. Her current research projects include: field research at Paleolithic sites in Kenya, analysis of skeletal remains from Ishango, Zaire, and dating by protein changes in ostrich eggshell.

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