Word: lake
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Perhaps no one is trying harder to fill in the blanks than Richard Leakey. Picking up where his father Louis left off at his death in 1972, Richard?with his Lake Turkana discoveries ?has already moved to the forefront of modern anthropology. Now he is reaching out to coordinate research throughout East Africa and taking the lead in sorting and assembling the thousands of fragments of evidence that may someday reveal the secrets of man's origins...
...around East Africa on courtesy safaris. In 1960, at the age of 17, he left school without graduating and set up a safari business on his own. The business did well, but Richard soon yearned to be back in the digs. Then, in 1963, on a chance flight over Lake Natron in northern Tanzania, he spotted what looked like interesting sediment beds and, encouraged by his parents, set off to explore the area. His first expedition proved to be a success; the team he assembled found a fragment from an Australopithecus robustus. He decided to become an anthropologist...
...Society's research committee and listened patiently as his father outlined plans for the coming year. Then, when the committee members turned to him, he surprised them by outlining some plans of his own. He had spotted some intriguing sediment layers and stone tools during a brief reconnaissance at Lake Turkana and asked for funds to go back for a closer look. Taken by his brashness, the committee granted his request. But it came with a warning: "If you find nothing you are never to come begging at our door again...
...exposed, many-layered sandwiches of volcanic ash and ancient sediments containing the remains of complete prehistoric environments. Organizing a team of fossil hunters, Leakey established a base camp at Koobi Fora, a mound at the inboard end of a long, crocodile-infested sand spit that curves out into the lake. Then he began following his nose?with remarkable success. Turkana has yielded the richest accumulation of remnants of man and his predecessors ever found in one area...
Next summer, however, Leakey will lead a team to search south of Lake Turkana at a site called Suguta. The region is roadless, and he will have to go in, as in the old days, by donkey and camel. The discomforts may be worth it; a geological survey of the area shows fossil-bearing sediments between 5 million and 9 million years old, laid down in a period that has so far yielded few clues about the ascent...