The mystery of man's origin and evolution continues to unfold as scientists unearth new evidence of our earliest existence. Dr. Richard Leakey, a renowned paleo-anthropologist and author, will speak on his 40-plus years of human prehistory research on Tuesday, October 26, at 7 p.m., in Greenwich Library's Cole Auditorium.
Leakey's research in northern Kenya has taken him from the early days of fossil hunting in the region around Lake Turkana -- an area of East Africa virtually unknown to science -- to the years of watershed discoveries of early human fossils that redefined again and again our understanding of human evolution. In recent times, he has refocused much of his energy on protecting Kenya's natural history heritage for future generations.
Son of famed fossil-hunters Louis and Mary Leakey, he has been credited with some of this century's most successful paleo-anthropological finds, including "Turkana Boy," a Homo erectus some 1.6 million years old, and one of the most complete skeletons ever found. In the 30 years following Leakey's first expedition, he and his team of paleoanthropologists known as "The Hominid Gang" unearthed more than two-hundred fossils. Leakey is currently a professor of anthropology at Stony Brook University.
Leakey is the author of The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Mankind, Origins Reconsidered, The Making of Mankind, One Life and other scientific books. His most recent book, entitled Wildlife Wars, chronicles his effort to save the African Elephant, focusing on his tenure as director of Kenya Wildlife Services.
For more information, please call Wynne Delmhorst at (203) 622-7921.
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