The Rift

About the Book

In 1960, Dr. Jonathan Leakey discovered a fossilized jaw fragment in the Olduvai Gorge of the East African Rift—the first specimen of what is now known as Homo habilis, an anthropoid (human-like) creature that some think may have been a human ancestor—a debatable point at best. H. habilis is thought to have lived around two million years ago. In 1999, a team of paleoanthropologists went to an area near the Olduvai Gorge, to a site known today as Lake Eyasi, to do some routine research relating to the supposed connection between H. habilis and H. sapiens (modern man), with a plan to study a creature that had been extinct for 1.4 million years. Or so it was thought. What they found was nothing short of a nightmare in which they found themselves examining their faith and its interaction with science that they thought they knew.

About the Author

Ric Daly is a native of Spirit Lake, Iowa, and has taught high-school science (physics, chemistry, oceanography, earth & space and research) in northeastern Minnesota, southwestern Arizona, and Florida’s Atlantic coast. He has been recognized as an authority on science education. Mr. Daly is also an accomplished artist in various mediums and has displayed his work in galleries in several states. He currently lives on Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range, where he is active in his church. The Rift is his first published novel, though he has two others (Willow Creek and Cold Trail) that will be forthcoming.