Origins Reconsidered: In search of what makes us human

In this book, Mr Richard Leakey follows up on his earlier book Origins.

He chronicles his journey to Lake Turkana, Kenya, and the discovery there of arguably the most important discovery in palaeoanthropology, Turkana Boy, a member of Homo ergaster (or H. erectus, as he calls it).

The first third of the book deals with the Boy and his physical and phylogenetic relation to humans. The second third deals mostly with the history of the human lineage and the impact of bipedalism on the hominids.

His ending is a revision of Origins, what it really means to be human, and a proposed revision of our own perspective on our species and its place in the animal world.

The main theme is the huge change finds like Turkana Boy have made on our own minds and thoughts on evolutionary history.