Page 2 • Wingspan
April 30, 2001
Famous paleontologist to share discoveries
By David Schipman
Humans beings may have a family
tree with many branches.
Renowned paleontologist Dr.
Meave Leakey will speak at Laramie
County Community College on
Wednesday, Sept. 26, at 8 p.m. in the
CCI Centennial Room.
The topic of her speech will be
“The Search and Discovery of our
Earliest Ancestors.” This event is
open to the public and tickets are free,
but students should get tickets in
advance.
The following morning a free
breakfast seminar for selected biology,
anthropology, religious studies and
history students will be held.
Leakey will be the third speaker in
the Gerald and Jesse Chambers
speaker series endowed through the
LCCC Foundation. Others included
PBS television correspondent Ray
Suarez and woolly mammoth
discoverer Dr. Larry Agenbroad.
Leakey and her team recently
discovered a skull on the western
shore of Kenya’s Lake Turkana that
dates back 3.5 million years. The find
Board pays for summer
tuition of recent grads
By Jamie Cousins
Everyone would love to get a
college credit class paid for free.
At the board of trustees’ meeting
at Laramie County Community
College on April 4, the board
approved unanimously to award
summer tuition waivers to recent
high school, GED and homeschooled graduates.
These students, in order to
receive the waiver, must have
completed their graduation requirements between December 2000 and
July 2001 and must pay the
application and any course fees.
The waiver will allow these
students to take one course up to
five credit hours during the summer
session 2001 at LCCC for free.
Students who are graduating and
finishing other programs will receive
letters in the mail informing them
about the opportunity at LCCC.
Parents will also receive letters.
The Enrollment Management
Implementation Team told the
trustees that this action will support
and promote the recruitment of
students and the sustainment of fulltime equivalents (FTEs). One FTE
equals 12 credit hours and influences
the college’s funding from the state.
Unitarian
Universalist Church
of Cheyenne
“A Spiritual Home For Free Minds”
Sunday Service, Religious Education, 10:30 a. m.
Call for information
on youth groups
and adult activities.
Revs. Makanah & Bob Morriss
638-4554
3005 Thomes
has a special offer to pamper
your delicate hands and sensitive feet
and to warm your body
♥
Full set of nails ................... $30
♥
Pedicure ............................. $35
♥
Spa Manicure ..................... $15
♥
12 Tans ............................... $25
Gift certificates are available for your
special mother, graduate and bride-to-be.
calls into question what we know
about our earliest ancestors. Before
Leakey’s discovery, the species
Australopithecus afarensis, represented
by the skeleton commonly known as
Lucy, was considered the oldest direct
ancestor of Homo sapiens (humans).
Leakey’s discovery suggested our
family tree may be much more
complex, with several species of
hominids living at the same time.
Some of these species died, while
others evolved to become human
ancestors.
The team named the skull
Kenyanthropus platyops, flat-faced man
of Kenya.
Leakey told a USA Today reporter
that Kenyanthropus could replace Lucy
as the best candidate on the human
family tree for our direct ancestor, but
said neither Lucy nor the new fossil is
necessarily “the one.”
Dr. Leakey currently heads the
paleontology division of the National
Museums of Kenya where she has
worked since 1969. Leakey obtained
her bachelor’s and doctorate from the
University of North Wales.
First interested in following a
career in marine zoology, Meave
initially undertook a joint-honors in
zoology and marine zoology.
However, her career soon took
another path. In 1965, while studying
for her doctorate, she took a position
at the Tigoni Primate Research Center,
a small facility under the auspices of
Louis Leakey and located just outside
Dr. Leakey to speak:
Dr. Meave Leakey is set to speak on Wednesday, Sept. 26.
of Nairobi.
In 1968, she finished her doctorate
and a year later was invited by Richard
Leakey to join his field expedition
investigating the newly discovered
palaeontological site at Koobi Fora on
the eastern shore of Kenya’s Lake
Turkana. This would mark the
beginning of her long-term involvement with the highly successful
Turkana Basin Research Project.
In 1970, Meave and Richard Leakey
were married. Leakey has written more
than 50 scientific articles and books
and also traveled the country lecturing
about her work and experiences.