PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
MEAVE LEAKEY coheads field efforts in northern Kenya seeking fossil records to the roots of humankind. She has worked at the National Museums of Kenya since 1969 and is research professor at Stony Brook University. SAMIRA LEAKEY has degrees from the University of London and Princeton University.
The Sediments of Time is 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 ape-like 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 An exciting and richly informative scientist's autobiography...This major work of scientific dedication and original insight illuminates both our distant past and our current, serious, human-caused planetary challenges. --Booklist Review *starred* Attentive readers of Meave Leakey's masterful memoir, The Sediments of Time, will learn a few details about her personal life....But the main and most illuminating parts of [the book] are about the tedious, painstaking years spent hunting for the fossilized remains of our species' precursors. Drawing on field notes, interviews and research papers, Meave recounts the work that led to some of her and her team's greatest discoveries....Meave and her co-writer, her youngest daughter Samira Leakey, write clearly and compellingly about what these discoveries mean...A thrilling account. --BookPage *starred* Meave describes a life that many readers will envy. Her discoveries, often after numbingly tedious work in a brutal climate, added new species to our family tree, teased out more information about existing ancestors, and increased our knowledge of how evolution, geology, and climate change gave rise to modern humans. She is not shy about explaining all this....An illuminating memoir of an impressive scientist. --Kirkus Reviews Fossils, hyaenas, and eccentric scientists almost literally jump off the page in Meave Leakey's exuberant memoir. This riveting read takes you on the unplanned but glorious adventure that has been Meave's life of discovery. Her love of learning and quest for knowledge about our origins inspire every page and will set your mind alight! --Nina G. Jablonski, PhD, Penn State University, Author of Living Color: The Biological and Social Meaning of Skin Color Meave Leakey confronts extraordinary challenges that ultimately yield unimaginably rich rewards. THE SEDIMENTS OF TIME offers everything for everyone: exciting fossil finds, courageous expeditions, seminal paleoanthropological contributions to science, and convincing scientific evidence to support climate change. Meave has labored five decades filling the gaps in Homo sapien's 3+ million year journey of evolution. She also verifies global climate change by analyzing fossil teeth, 800,000 year old ocean floor ice cores, and Milankovitch's sun-earth alignment to explain global glaciation and torrid periods. She is a researcher extraordinaire. --Gilbert Grosvenor, Former President and Chairman of National Geographic Involved for five decades in collecting, describing and interpreting an extraordinary range of fossils critical to understanding human evolution, Meave Leakey and her daughter Samira present us here with a welcome and accomplished example of accessible science writing in this engaging and deeply informed book. --David Pilbeam, PhD, Henry Ford II Research Professor of Human Evolution, Harvard University A fascinating memoir and whirlwind tour of research into human origins by one of the preeminent explorers of our age; an inspiration for new generations of researchers and the wider public alike. --Fred Spoor, PhD, Natural History Museum, U.K. Meave Leakey has long been recognized as one of the world's leading paleoanthropologists. In this memoir, Meave recounts her East African field expeditions and shares broad insights into anatomy, geology, paleontology, botany, language, and human behavior. Her contributions to solving some the puzzles of human evolution illustrate how field and laboratory work, analytical studies, and long-term collaborations work together to shape scientific knowledge. Hers is a remarkable and inspiring life story. --Thure Cerling, PhD, Francis Brown Presidential Chair, University of Utah
