No other family in history has dominated a scientific field as the Leakey family has. Louis, Mary, and Richard Leakey have made key fossil discoveries that have shaped and reshaped our understanding of human origins. As a member of the tiny minority of scientists who believed that humankind originated in Africa millions of years ago, Louis Leakey helped to lay the theoretical groundwork for the science of paleoanthropology. In Ancestral Passions, Virginia Morell has written the first full biography of the Leakeys, a vivid portrait of a family whose contributions to science remain unmatched.