Current Performance and On-Going Improvements of the 8.2 m Subaru Telescope

An overview of the current status of the 8.2 m Subaru Telescope constructed and operated at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan is presented. The basic design concept and the verified performance of the telescope system are described. Also given are the status of the instrument package offered to the astronomical community, the status of operation, and some of the future plans. The status of the telescope reported in a number of SPIE papers as of the summer of 2002 are incorporated with some updates included as of 2004 February. However, readers are encouraged to check the most updated status of the telescope through the home page, http://subarutelescope.org/index.html, and/or the direct contact with the observatory staff.Comment: 18 pages (17 pages in published version), 29 figures (GIF format), This is the version before the galley proo

Additional Large Mammalian Fauna from the Namurungule Formation, Samburu Hills, Northern Kenya

Some 1150 late Miocene vertebrate fossils were collected by the Japan-Kenya Expedition from the Namurungule Formation in the Samburu Hills, Northern Kenya. The Namurungule mammalian local fauna has simillarities to late Miocene Eurasian faunas from Samos and Pikermi (Greece), Maragheh (Iran), and the Nagri and Dhok Pathan Formations of the Siwalik Hills (India). This similarity indicates mammalian interchanges between Eurasian and Africa during the late Miocene. The svanna fauna of the Namurungule Formation differs completely from the earilier Aka Aiteputh Formation fauna, which indicates a woodland enviroment (Pickford et al. 1984). This great change in the mammalian fauna of the East African late Miocene coincided with the beginning of the opening of the Gregory Rift

The Late Miocene Large Mammal Fauna from the Namurungule Formation, Samburu Hills, Northern Kenya

By the Japan-Kenya Expedition, more than 1145 late Miocene vertebrate fossils were collected from the Namurungule Formation in Samburu Hills, Northern Kenya in 1982. These fossils are assigned to at least 29 taxa of which 21 are mammals, including Hominoid, Tetralophodon, two kinds of Hipparion, Brachypotherium, Kenyapotamus, and Pachytragus. Quantitatively, the taxa of Hipparion are the most predominant. But gomphothere, bovid, rhinocerotid and giraffid fossils are approximately as common as each other at Namurungule. Suids, hippopotamids and carnivores seem to be uniformly rare as fossils at Samburu. In this paper, 19 taxa of mammals are described and discussed briefly. The Namurungule mammalian fauna is closer in age to Ngorora (c. 11 m.y.) than to Mpesida (7 m.y.) from Kenya, and this fauna is similar to the faunas of Samos and Pikermi (Vallesian). It seems that the abundance of Hipparion, giraffids, rhinocerotids and bovids suggests a woodland to savannah environment at or near Namurungule during the upper Miocene. We find very little evidence to suggest that there was forest in the vicinity at the time of deposition

Fossiliferous Localities of the Nachola-Samburu Hills Area, Northern Kenya

In the four geographic/stratigraphic areas of the Samburu Hills and Nachola, west of Baragoi, Kenya, a significant number of fossiliferous localities was found. Nachola area is dated to the middle Miocene, the Namurungule Formation in Samburu Hill to the upper Miocene, Kongia area to the Mio-Pliocene and Holocene to the are near Suguta valley and in the drainage systems of the Samburu Hills to the Holocene. The site BG X in Nachola yielded a number of fossils provisionally assigned to Kenyapithecus. An important large hominoid specimen occurred in site SH 22 of the Namurungule Formation. Undoubtedly a great many additional sites await discovery

Fossil Anthropoids from Nachola and Samburu Hills, Samburu District, Kenya

During the 1982 expedition to Samburu Hills and Nachola, a number of hominoid fossils was found from two Miocene deposits. A small hominoid and a large late Miocene hominoid are contained in the fossils. The former most closely resembles Kenyapithecus africanus, and the latter may be ancestral to the extant African apes and hominoids, to gorilla alone, or not any living hominoids. The various alternatives are discussed

The Biostratigraphic Analyses of the Faunas of the Nachola Area and Samburu Hills, Northern Kenya

To examine and refine the preliminary K-Ar dating results, the faunas of Nachola and Samburu Hills are analyzed biostratigraphically. It is confirmed that the fauna of Nachola is in the pre-Hipparion stage (earlier than 10±0.5 m.y.). The fauna from the Namurungule Formation of Samburu Hills is the post-Hipparion stage (later than 10±0.5), not as advanced as that of Lukeino (6.5 m.y.) and most like those from Ngeringerowa and Nakali. Therefore, it is supposed that the age of the Namurungule fauna is 9±1 m.y.