Sediments of Time - Softcover

Leakey, Meave

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0358629225 ISBN 13: 9780358629221

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2021

Synopsis

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 prehuman 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 personal story is replete with drama, from thrilling discoveries on the shores of Lake Turkana—including the 3.5-million-year-old skull of the flat-faced man from Kenya, representing an important new branch of the human family—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, 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 apelike 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

About this title

About the Authors

MEAVE LEAKEY currently coheads the significant field efforts in northern Kenya, started nearly a century ago by Louis and Mary Leakey, seeking the fossil records to the roots of humankind. She has worked at the National Museums of Kenya since 1969, including as the head of the paleontology department, and is a research professor at Stony Brook University, New York. She is the recipient of several honorary degrees, has been elected an honorary fellow of the Geological Society of London, inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, was a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, served as a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, and received the National Geographic Society Hubbard Medal, among many other accolades and achievements. She is also an author of numerous groundbreaking scientific publications in prestigious journals and of several monographs documenting her research.
 

SAMIRA LEAKEY obtained a BA in politics with first-class honours from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and a master’s degree in public administration from Princeton University. Samira worked at the World Bank in Washington, DC, and now lives in Nairobi with her daughter.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0358629225
• ISBN 13: 9780358629221
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416