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
