 |
 
| |
Years of Field Work:
33
Leakey Luck?
"It’s perseverence"
Education:
B. Sc. and Ph.D. in Zoology for the University of North Wales, UK
Year of Birth:
1942
Childhood Hobby:
Doing jigsaw puzzles with the pieces turned upside down.
Motivation:
"You’re always expecting to find something."
Heir Apparent:
Daughter Louise
Quote:
“One of these early
hominids was ancestral to us, but
we don’t know which. It could well be something we haven’t yet
found.”
|
|
| |
Watch an interview with Dr. Meave Leakey as she talks about the
discovery of a new human ancestor.
Real Audio Windows Media
Institute of Human Origins
www.becominghuman.org/
Get news on the latest developments in paleontology, find a list of additional sources including a
glossary of terms, and watch a documentary in
broadband, hosted by institute director and Lucy’s
discoverer, Donald Johanson.
The Leakey Foundation
www.leakeyfoundation.org/
Learn more about the Leakey family history and the projects funded by their foundation.
The National Museums of Kenya
www.museums.or.ke/
Learn more about resources for researchers including the Institute of Primate Research, started by Dr. Louis Leakey in 1960.
|
|
|
 
 
 
| Photographs by Robert Campbell Copyright National Museums of Kenya |
 |
| |
This Week’s Questions. Click on a question for a full response.
|
|
| |
| Name: | Tina |
| Subject: | Kenya man |
|
| Question: |
|
| I am just real curious. If the Kenya man was about 3.5 million years old,
did you find any more skulls from the same time frame? To compare information? |
|
| Leakey’s Answer: |
|
| Kenya man is dated at 3.5 million years. We did not find other skulls, only a
fragment of upper jaw. We also have many teeth that we cannot associate with the skull. We will continue to search and will one day find more.
|
|
| Back to Top |
|
|
|
| Name: | Rich Travsky |
| Subject: | K.a. gender; evidence of bipedality |
|
| Question: |
|
| Two questions. First, is the preservation of Kenyanthropus adequate
enough to determine gender? Second, is bipedality assumed or again is the preservation of the skull’s base
enough to tell this?
|
|
| Leakey’s Answer: |
|
The question of gender is difficult with only one specimen. Because it
is so small it is most likely a female.
Bipedality is assumed since features of the skull and dentition show it to be a human
rather than an ape ancestor. All human ancestors were bipedal after the human and
ape lineages diverged probably as early as six or seven million years ago.
|
|
| Back to Top |
|
|
|
| Name: | Emily Kopp & Leah Hatheway |
| Subject: | School report |
|
| Question: |
|
| What does his name mean?
|
|
| Leakey’s Answer: |
|
| Kenyanthropus platyops means man from Kenya, and we chose this name in
recognition of the many discoveries of fossils of human ancestors from Kenya. Platus is Greek for
flat and opsis is Greek for face. So the name means flat-faced man from Kenya.
|
|
| Back to Top |
|
|
|
| Name: | Eric Stein |
| Subject: | Facial features |
|
| Question: |
|
| Of the many articles in NG on humans, none have explained why
different cultures around the world have different facial features. Why is it that the Chinese, Japanese,
European, etc., have different looks.
|
|
| Leakey’s Answer: |
|
| The different populations around the world evolved initially from
populations of Homo sapiens that spread out of Africa along different routes. Because these early
populations were widely diffused, they did not have contact with populations distant from them. Thus
populations in Australia, Asia, Europe, and American gradually evolved features of the face, hair, and
body shape that distinguished them form other populations. Now that people move freely around the world, many
of these differences are becoming less obvious. These differences are quickly lost when populations interbreed.
|
|
| Back to Top |
|
|
|
| Name: | Bobby Nelms |
| Subject: | What is a missing link? |
|
| Question: |
|
| Of all the research from Afarensis to Erectus, are they all
links to us, are they all the missing link, or is the link not missing?
|
|
| Leakey’s Answer: |
|
| Only one of the many branches in the human evolutionary tree led directly
to us. But the many side branches are all indirectly linked to us because they share a common ancestor
with us. Thus, like a chain there are many links and many are still missing. But we have also found many.
|
|
| Back to Top |
|
|
|
|
|
|
