Word: leakeys
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
PEOPLE OF THE LAKE by Richard E. Leakey and Roger Lewin Anchor Press/Doubleday; 298pages...
These views of our ancestors are diverting, and even, on occasion, informative. But even the speculations of more serious anthropologists and behavioral scientists, says Richard Leakey, are far from accurate. The author should know. His own guesses have the ring of authority, and his genealogy is impeccable. Indeed, if anyone doubts the power of heredity, let him examine the lineage-or the books-of the Leakey family. A generation ago, the great anthropologists Louis and Mary first explored the highlands of East Africa in search of man's origins. Today their son Richard spends much of his time...
...accomplished Fossil Hunter, Richard Leakey wittily probes the remains uncovered near crocodile-infested Lake Turkana. The authors admit that we know little about Ramapithecus, a small apelike fellow who existed some 12 million years ago; all we have are a few teeth and bones. Nor, despite the recently unearthed ribs and vertebrae, is there much more data about Australopithecus, who survived until about a million years ago, then turned down an evolutionary dead-end street and disappeared. But science has learned what happened to habilis. With a brain-half again as big as his neighbors', he not only adapted...
...they could also be uncommonly generous, and before they exhausted their funds and energies, they set new standards for imaginative philanthropy. A list of their legacies includes the Guggenheim fellowships, Manhattan's Guggenheim Museum, and foundations that helped finance Robert Goddard's pioneering rocket research and the Leakey family's exploration into the origins...
...Leakey and her team compared the footprints with some left 80,000 years ago by Neanderthal man, generally accepted as the earliest human prints. Only about 15 cm (6 in.) long, but 11½ cm (4½ in.) across?much wider than either those of Neanderthal or modern man?the Laetolil markings indicate a manlike primate about 1.2 meters (4 ft.) tall that probably walked with what Leakey calls "a slow, rolling gait," like a chimpanzee's. Though there were many animal tracks nearby ?including some of knuckle-walking apes?Leakey is "75% certain" that the prints were those...