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Rival Anthropologists Donald Johanson and Richard Leakey Reunite after 30-Year Rift

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


On May 5 famed paleoanthropologists Donald Johanson and Richard Leakey convened at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City to discuss human origins. It is the first time Leakey and Johanson--longtime rivals--have shared a stage since a public falling out in 1981. Viewers in the live audience and those who tuned in to the webcast tweeted the discussion and uploaded photos to Facebook, so I decided to use Storify to document this historic event.  

 

[View the story "Rival Anthropologists Donald Johanson and Richard Leakey Reunite after 30-Year Rift" on Storify]


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 Photo of Richard Leakey and Donald Johanson by Frank Kollman

Kate Wong is an award-winning science writer and senior editor at Scientific American focused on evolution, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology and animal behavior. She is fascinated by human origins, which she has covered for more than 25 years. Recently she has become obsessed with birds. Her reporting has taken her to caves in France and Croatia that Neandertals once called home, to the shores of Kenya's Lake Turkana in search of the oldest stone tools in the world, to Madagascar on an expedition to unearth ancient mammals and dinosaurs, to the icy waters of Antarctica, where humpback whales feast on krill, and on a "Big Day" race around the state of Connecticut to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. Kate is co-author, with Donald Johanson, of Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She holds a bachelor of science degree in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. Follow Wong on X (formerly Twitter) @katewong

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