Ancestral Passions

Ancestral Passions PDF Author: Virginia Morell
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439143870
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 644

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Book Description
This biography of the "First Family" of anthropology reveals how their discoveries, collaborations, and rivalries contributed to our own knowledge of the origins of humankind. In this fascinating and authoritative work, acclaimed science writer Virginia Morell brings to vivid life the famous and infamous Leakey family, pioneers in the field of paleoanthropology: Louis Leakey, the patriarch, who persisted through initial scientific failures and scandal-ridden divorce to achieve spectacular success in digs throughout East Africa; Mary, his second wife, who worked alongside Louis as they made their outstanding discoveries at Olduvai Gorge and elsewhere; and Richard, their son, who ascended to the top of the field in his parents’ wake, only to be threatened with both near-fatal illness and fierce professional rivalry. Morell transports us into the world of these compelling personalities, demonstrating how a small clan of highly talented and fiercely competitive people came to dominate an entire field of science and to contribute immeasurably to our understanding of the origins of humanity.

Ancestral Passions

Ancestral Passions PDF Author: Virginia Morell
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439143870
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 644

Get Book Here

Book Description
This biography of the "First Family" of anthropology reveals how their discoveries, collaborations, and rivalries contributed to our own knowledge of the origins of humankind. In this fascinating and authoritative work, acclaimed science writer Virginia Morell brings to vivid life the famous and infamous Leakey family, pioneers in the field of paleoanthropology: Louis Leakey, the patriarch, who persisted through initial scientific failures and scandal-ridden divorce to achieve spectacular success in digs throughout East Africa; Mary, his second wife, who worked alongside Louis as they made their outstanding discoveries at Olduvai Gorge and elsewhere; and Richard, their son, who ascended to the top of the field in his parents’ wake, only to be threatened with both near-fatal illness and fierce professional rivalry. Morell transports us into the world of these compelling personalities, demonstrating how a small clan of highly talented and fiercely competitive people came to dominate an entire field of science and to contribute immeasurably to our understanding of the origins of humanity.

The Leakeys

The Leakeys PDF Author: Mary Bowman-Kruhm
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313062110
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
Three generations of Leakeys have dug in East Africa for fossil evidence that answers questions about human origins. Louis and Mary, husband and wife, began what would turn into decades of research and fieldwork, often disproving common theories and beliefs of the time. Son Richard followed in his parents' foot steps, along with his wife Meave, and made spectacular finds as well. Today, Louise, the oldest daughter of Richard and Meave, continues the family tradition with fieldwork in northern Kenya. The Leakey family's achievements have had an enormous impact on our knowledge of human origins and evolution. This biography describes their life in detail, including their discoveries, publications, controversies, and legacy. A timeline, glossary, and bibliography of print and electronic sources supplement the material.

The Leakeys

The Leakeys PDF Author: Angela Timmons-Hanselka
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN: 1725342421
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Book Description
Known as the First Family of Paleontology, the Leakey family's fascinating archaeological and paleontological finds in Africa stunned the world and reset prevailing notions about human evolution. Featuring captivating text accompanied by striking images, this book explores the Leakey family's incredible journey from their early-twentieth-century discoveries to the work of their modern-day foundation. It helps learners understand the importance of scientific collaboration. A timeline of significant scientific events and Leakey finds will help learners grasp how valuable the Leakey legacy is. Informative sidebars will draw the readers' eyes toward some of the most interesting archaeological discoveries made by the Leakey family.

Leakey's Luck

Leakey's Luck PDF Author: Sonia Cole
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 486

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Book Description
Profiles the flamboyant, tireless British anthropologist whose discoveries in Olduvai Gorge and other East African sites revolutionized theories of human evolution and who made major contributions in archaeology, paleontology, and zoology.

Mother Leakey and the Bishop

Mother Leakey and the Bishop PDF Author: Peter Marshall
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199532079
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
In this remarkable piece of historical detective work, Peter Marshall sets out to discover the intriguing links between sightings of the ghost of an old woman in the small English coastal town of Minehead in the 1630s and the hanging of a disgraced Protestant bishop in Dublin several years later.

The Sediments of Time

The Sediments of Time PDF Author: Meave G. Leakey
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN: 0358206677
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
"Extraordinary . . . This inspirational autobiography stands among the finest scientist memoirs." --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice Meave Leakey's thrilling, high-stakes memoir--written with her daughter Samira--encapsulates her distinguished life and career on the front lines of the hunt for our human origins, a quest made all the more notable by her stature as a woman in a highly competitive, male-dominated field. In The Sediments of Time, preeminent paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey brings us along on her remarkable journey to reveal the diversity of our early pre-human ancestors and how past climate change drove their evolution. She offers a fresh account of our past, as recent breakthroughs have allowed new analysis of her team's fossil findings and vastly expanded our understanding of our ancestors. Meave's own personal story is replete with drama, from thrilling discoveries on the shores of Lake Turkana to run-ins with armed herders and every manner of wildlife, to raising her children and supporting her renowned paleoanthropologist husband Richard Leakey's ambitions amidst social and political strife in Kenya. When Richard needs a kidney, Meave provides him with hers, and when he asks her to assume the reins of their field expeditions after he loses both legs in a plane crash, the result of likely sabotage, Meave steps in. The Sediments of Time is the summation of a lifetime of Meave Leakey's efforts; it is a compelling picture of our human origins and climate change, as well as a high-stakes story of ambition, struggle, and hope. "A fascinating glimpse into our origins. Meave Leakey is a great storyteller, and she presents new information about the far off time when we emerged from our ape-like ancestors to start the long journey that has led to our becoming the dominant species on Earth. That story, woven into her own journey of research and discovery, gives us a book that is informative and captivating, one that you will not forget." --Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute

Origins Reconsidered

Origins Reconsidered PDF Author: Richard E. Leakey
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385467923
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
Richard Leakey's personal account of his fossil hunting and landmark discoveries at Lake Turkana, his reassessment of human prehistory based on new evidence and analytic techniques, and his profound pondering of how we became "human" and what being "human" really means.

Olduvai Gorge

Olduvai Gorge PDF Author: M. D. Leakey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521105187
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
The third volume of the definitive publication of the remains of early man found at Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania.

Origins of Anatomically Modern Humans

Origins of Anatomically Modern Humans PDF Author: Doris V. Nitecki
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1489915079
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
This volume is based on the Field Museum of Natural History Spring System atics Symposium held in Chicago on May 11, 1991. The financial support of Ray and Jean Auel and of the Field Museum is gratefully acknowledged. When we teach or write, we present only those elements that support our arguments. We avoid all weak points of our debate and all the uncer tainties of our models. Thus, we offer hypotheses as facts. Multiauthored books like ours, which simultaneously advocate and question diverse views, avoid the pitfalls and lessen the impact of indoctrination. In this volume we analyze the anthropological and biological disagreements and the positions taken on the origins of modern humans, point out difficultieswith the inter pretations, and suggest that the concept of the human origin can be explained only when we first attempt to define Homo sapiens sapiens. One of the major controversies in physical anthropology concerns the geographic origin of anatomically modern humans. It is undisputed, due to the extensive research of the Leakeys and their colleagues, that the family Hominidae originated in Africa, but the geographic origin of Homo sapiens sapiens is less concretely accepted. Two schools of thought existon this topic.

A Dark Place in the Jungle

A Dark Place in the Jungle PDF Author: Linda Spalding
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 9781565122260
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Recounts Spalding's journey to locate Birute Galdikas in Borneo's threatened jungles, where Galdikas has been working to study and protect the endangered orangutans