Author Posting. © Elsevier B.V., 2007. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Organic Geochemistry 38 (2007): 1607-1624, doi:10.1016/j.orggeochem.2007.06.008. ; Integrated terrestrial and marine records of northeast African vegetation are needed to provide long, high resolution records of environmental variability with established links to specific terrestrial environments. In this study, we compare records of terrestrial vegetation preserved in marine sediments in the Gulf of Aden (DSDP Site 231) and an outcrop of lacustrine sediments in the Turkana Basin, Kenya, part of the East African Rift System. We analyzed higher plant biomarkers in sediments from both deposits of known equivalent age, corresponding to a ca. 50 – 100 ka humid interval prior to the β-Tulu Bor eruption ca. 3.40 Ma, when the Lokochot Lake occupied part of the Turkana Basin. Molecular abundance distributions indicate that long chain n-alkanoic acids in marine sediments are the most reliable proxy for terrestrial vegetation (Carbon Preference Index, CPI, = 4.5), with more cautious interpretation needed for n-alkanes and lacustrine archives. Marine sediments record carbon isotopic variability in terrestrial biomarkers of 2 – 3‰, roughly equivalent to 20% variability in the C3/C4 vegetation contribution. The proportion of C4 vegetation apparently increased at times of low terrigenous dust input. Terrestrial sediments reveal much larger (2 – 10‰) shifts in n-alkanoic acid δ13C values. However, molecular abundance and isotopic composition suggest that microbial sources may also contribute fatty acids, contaminating the lacustrine sedimentary record of terrestrial vegetation. ; Funding was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation HOMINID Grant 0218511.