Paleoanthropologist and zoologist Meave Leakey felt slightly out of place during her lecture in Hendricks Chapel last night.

The afternoon snow storm took her by surprise, confining her to her Sheraton hotel room to wonder if she’d make it out alive.

‘Less than a week ago, she was in the field working in Africa in 110-degree temperatures,’ said Michael Flushe, associate vice chancellor of Syracuse University. ‘For some reason, she thinks it’s cold here.’

Leakey traveled from an excavation site in Africa, where she, her daughter and a team of scientists and excavators continue to discover ancient fossils. The Leakey family has long been associated with excellence in piecing together the links in human history.

‘Meave Leakey has been at the heart of discoveries that have led us to the golden age of paleoanthropology,’ said Cathryn Newton, dean of The College of Arts and Sciences. ‘The Leakeys have become a symbol of what one can be in the areas of field discovery and analysis.’

‘She was very insightful,’ said Marissa Sobolewski, a senior in the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. ‘It was a good example of a historical woman documenting her life and all the things she was able to accomplish.’

Leakey began her work in Africa in 1968 and continues it there today. The work of the Leakey family began in 1939 with husband-and-wife team Louis and Mary, Meave’s parents-in-law. They were behind the discovery of the first Paranthropus boisei skull. The pair gained funding from the National Geographic Society and uncovered numerous artifacts, including a Homo Erectus skull and controversial Homo Habilis fossils, Meave Leakey said.

‘(Homo Habilis) was the beginning of the understanding of the diversity in our past and that our situation wasn’t as simple as previously discussed,’ she said.

Meave Leakey joined her husband Richard’s team in 1969 and started work in the Turkana Lake region of Africa. The two continued work in the area throughout the 1970s and 1980s, during which their daughter Louise was born. Their work in the field proved that there was diversity in the fossil record, though much is still to be learned, she said.

‘I don’t believe family trees represent the full picture,’ Meave Leakey said. ‘Drawing lines implies that we know the order of things.’

In 1989 Richard left the team, and Meave Leakey took over as head of the expedition. Louise Leakey, who had sworn she would not follow in her parents’ footsteps, became part of the group in 1998 as a pilot and has continued to gain responsibility. She has brought the team back to some older sites and has drawn together a new, energetic team of excavators.

‘She’s moving into the driver’s seat, and I’m moving into the passenger’s seat, which suits me fine,’ Meave Leakey said. ‘She can deal with the problems, and I can enjoy the discovery.’

She explained that the largest problems the team encounters involve funding and that they often need to go to the National Geographic Society for assistance. It’s also difficult to find fresh water, which is usually obtained by digging a hole in the sand.

Meave Leakey also detailed her discovery of a 3.5 million year old skull. Her team was unable to fit the fossil into a previously discovered species, so they opted to create the name Kenyanthropus platyops, which describes it as a flat faced organism.

‘Generally speaking, it has been accepted as a new species,’ she said. ‘I would dearly love someone to find another specimen.’

Meave Leakey said that it has been difficult to remain objective about her discoveries and that people find it hard to avoid prejudice, because they already have an idea in their heads of how the story should go.

‘I’m expecting surprises, but I know I’m prejudiced in my interpretations,’ she said. ‘My husband is the best one of reminding me of this, because whenever I come up with theories that I think are pretty solid, he tells me that they’re rubbish. Every day is a surprise.’

Published on March 16, 2004 at 12:00 pm