Word: leakey
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Last week's attack was apparently the latest in a prolonged war between the Kenyan government and heavily armed bands of poachers set on pursuing the illegal trade in ivory, rhinoceros horns and leopard and lion skins. Richard Leakey, the noted paleoanthropologist who directs Kenya's wildlife service, said the killers would probably turn out to be poachers from neighboring Somaliland. These nomads are paid almost nothing for the hacked-off trophies, which are later sold for hundreds of millions of dollars in Asian and Middle Eastern markets...
Despite such embarrassments, the society's real achievement has been to bring the world and the marvels of scientific discovery to its readers, who for years have followed the adventures of such favorites as French Undersea Explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Chimpanzee Expert Jane Goodall. Says Paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey, another society beneficiary: "The Geographic's foundation funding has contributed more than any other organization in bringing about an understanding of early man." The magazine's greatest strength is the exceptional sense of intimacy it shares with its readers, as well as its simple, first-person style. 60 Minutes Correspondent Morley...
...Spiritually restless, she converted to Roman Catholicism, then abandoned the faith. Her social relations were equally unstable. She was involved in many liaisons and underwent an abortion, but no man held her interest for long. Fossey's career was given the best possible start when Paleontologist Louis Leakey signed her on as his research assistant, yet she was never fully confident of her talent or of those around her. In the field or at home, professional and sexual jealousies continued to mar her career. Occasionally she would make intense declarations of affection, but from the moment she stepped into...
...trickier. It has the structure of a late australopithecine: wide palate, huge rear molars, enormous cheekbones and a pronounced crest of bone running along the top of the skull. But other features -- a for- ward-thrusting muzzle, an orangutan-size brain and an apelike jaw structure -- are primitive. Leakey believes this mosaic suggests, as he has argued for years, that Johanson is wrong and that his reconstruction of afarensis is actually based on two different species. And, Leakey says, the new fossil, labeled WT 17000, resembles one of them...
...fossil record had also apparently shown that the australopithecines evolved in an orderly way: first came afarensis, followed by africanus, then robustus and boisei. But the age and form of WT 17000 convinced Leakey and Walker that the lineage was not simple after all. Boisei did not descend from robustus, and probably not even from afarensis...