This Issue:

Table of Contents

Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

Mini-Lesson

Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

Taking Steps To Save History

About 3.6 million years ago, three nearly human beings took a walk, leaving an 89-foot-long trail of footprints across what is now Africa's Serengeti plain. The Sandiman volcano nearby was spewing big flakes of ash. The volcanic ash hardened into a protective shield that preserved the prints over the ages until 1978. That is when Mary Leakey, a member of the famous Leakey family of English archaeologists, uncovered the prints. They were so well preserved, she could see the pattern of the apelike creatures' skin.

Now the footprints are being covered up again, this time by humans. Water, wind and plant roots have begun to damage them. So a group of conservationists are protecting the prints with synthetic netting, adding time-release weed-killing chemicals, then piling on volcanic rocks. The prints will be hidden, but they will be much safer.

Leakey's 1978 discovery proved a long-held theory that human ancestors walked on two feet before they learned to make tools.

Mary Leakey is now 83. Last week she got one last look at her great discovery before it was to be buried again.

Next: A Troubled Heart