The Leakey Family

The biography series, aimed at young adults, profiles important modern-era scientists.

The volumes focus on the lives of those men and women who, in the 19th and 20th centuries, made the greatest contributions to scientific knowledge.

Each book looks at a scientist - or group of scientists - whose work had a major impact on a particular field.

In simple prose, free of technical jargon, each scientist's achievements are discussed, including the scientific principles underlying his or her work.

The human drama of scientific work, conveying the excitement and frustration of research, as well as the exhilaration and rewards of discovery, are also depicted.

This particular volume deals with the Leakey family.

It tells the story of the anthropologists who pioneered the search for man's origins in East Africa - how Mary Leakey uncovered fossils of early humans estimated to be over a million years old, and Richard Leakey discovered the famous "Lucy" fossil which pushed back the time line of human origins to over two million years.