astronomy

Meave Leakey

Meave Leakey is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Meave Leakey rather than just read about it. In short: Meave G. Leakey (born Meave Epps; 28 July 1942) is a British palaeoanthropologist.

Key takeaways

Meave Leakey belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Meave Leakey to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Meave Leakey from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Meave G. Leakey (born Meave Epps; 28 July 1942) is a British palaeoanthropologist. She works at Stony Brook University and is co-ordinator of Plio-Pleistocene research at the Turkana Basin Institute. She studies early hominid evolution and has done extensive field research in the Turkana Basin. She has Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Science degrees.

Flat-faced man of Kenya Leakey's research team at Lake Turkana, Kenya, made a discovery in 1999. They found a 3.5-million-year-old skull and partial jaw thought to belong to a new branch of the early human family. She named the find Kenyanthropus platyops ("flat-faced man of Kenya").

Personal life Leakey was married to Richard Leakey, a palaeontologist. They have two children, Louise (born 1972) and Samira (born 1974). Louise Leakey continues family traditions by conducting palaeontological research. Leakey initially studied zoology and marine zoology at the University of North Wales. Her first contact with the Leakey family was working for the Tigoni Primate Research Centre while studying for her PhD. At this time, the centre was being administered by Louis Leakey. She received her PhD in zoology in 1968. In 2004, she was awarded an honorary D.Sc. from University College, London, for palaeontology. That same year, she received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. Leakey is currently a Research Professor for the Turkana Basin Institute (affiliated with Stony Brook University). On 30 April 2013, Leakey was elected as a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, with specialities of geology and anthropology. This made Leakey the first Kenyan citizen and also the first woman citizen of an African country to be elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. She was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2017.

Position in the Leakey family

Selected publications Rene Bob & Meave G. Leakey (2009), "Ecology of Plio-Pleistocene Mammals in the Omo-Turkana Basin and the Emergence of Homo", in Frederick E. Grine; John G. Fleagle & Richard E. Leakey (eds.), The First Humans: Origin and Early Evolution of the Genus Homo, Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology, Conference publication: Springer, pp. 175–184, ISBN 978-1-4020-9979-3, retrieved 30 April 2010 Lothagam: The Dawn of Humanity in Eastern Africa by John Harris and Meave Leakey, Eds. (December 2001). Leakey, Meave; Walker, Alan (June 1997), "Early Hominid Fossils from Africa", Scientific American, 276 (6): 74–79, Bibcode:1997SciAm.276f..74L, doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0697-74, PMID 9198897 Stratigraphy and Paleontology of Pliocene and Pleistocene Localities West of Lake Turkana, Kenya by John Harris, Meave Leakey, Eds. et al. (October 1988). Harris, J.M; Brown, F.H; Leakey, M.G; Walker, A.C; Leakey, R.E (1 January 1989), "Pliocene and Pleistocene Hominid-Bearing Sites from West of Lake Turkana, Kenya", Science, 239 (4835): 27–33, doi:10.1126/science.239.4835.27, PMID 17820626, S2CID 21225366 Leakey, Meave G.; Leakey, Richard E.; Harris, John Michael, eds. (1978), Koobi Fora Research Project: Researches into Geology, Palaeontology, and Human Origins, vol. 1: The Fossil Hominids and an Introduction to their Context 1968–1974, Clarendon Press, ISBN 978-0-19-857392-0 Leakey, Meave G. (2020). The Sediments of Time: My Lifelong Search for the Past. With Samira Leakey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-358-20667-5.

See also Meave (Irish name) List of fossil sites (with link directory) List of hominina (hominid) fossils (with images)

References

External links Leakey Foundation Koobi Fora Research Project Dr. Meave Leakey Discusses Kenyanthropus platyops Turkana Basin Institute

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Meave Leakey

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Meave Leakey claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Meave Leakey before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Meave Leakey ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Meave Leakey

In research: Meave Leakey appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Meave Leakey in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Meave Leakey is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1942 births, 20th-century British anthropologists, 20th-century British archaeologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Meave Leakey outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Meave Leakey in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Meave Leakey means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Meave Leakey out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Meave Leakey in simple terms?

Meave G. Leakey (born Meave Epps; 28 July 1942) is a British palaeoanthropologist.

Why does Meave Leakey matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Meave Leakey?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Meave Leakey.