N-Paraffins in the sediments and in situ fossils of the Lake Turkana Basin, Kenya

Abstract

Residual hydrocarbons were extracted from a number of vertebrate fossils and their surrounding sediments collected at six sites in the Plio-Pleistocene sediments of paleo-Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. Gas chromatographic separation of these alkane fractions showed three recognizable suites of hydrocarbons, a C-15 to C-19 group derived from algae, a C-20 to C-30 group with no odd/ even preference derived from microbial action on soil organics, and a C-21 to C-35 group with high odd/even preference derived from plant waxes. No alkanes identifiable as being derived from the original animal fats were observed. The plant wax alkanes and microbial hydrocarbons were nearly ubiquitous, in sands, silts, clays and the fossils. The algal hydrocarbons, on the other hand, were found only in the sands and silts. There were no consistent differences between the hydrocarbon content of the fossils and the surrounding sediments. There were great local variations in alkane distribution, but no patterns were discernible. The total hydrocarbon content of these arid region sediments is almost vanishingly small compared to sediments in more temperate climates.