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Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 6 February 1913 London, England, UK |
| Died | 9 December 1996 (aged 83) |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Hominid fossils, Laetoli |
| Spouse | Louis Leakey |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Anthropologist, Archeologist |
Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British archaeologist and anthropologist, who spent much of her life working in East Africa, in Tanzania and Kenya.
She discovered the first fossilized Proconsul skull, an extinct primate. They had a mixture of Old World monkey and ape characteristics, and their position in the evolution of the apes is still not clear. Leakey also discovered the robust Zinjanthropus skull at Olduvai Gorge.
For much of her career she worked together with her husband, Louis Leakey, in Olduvai Gorge, uncovering the tools and fossils of ancient hominins. She developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. She also discovered the Laetoli footprints. In 1960 she became director of excavation at Olduvai. Eventually, she chose and trained her own staff.[1] After the death of her husband she became a leading palaeoanthropologist, helping to establish the Leakey tradition by training her son, Richard, in the field.[2]
- ↑ Leakey, Mary 1984. Disclosing the past: an autobiography. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.
- ↑ Morell, Virginia 1996. Ancestral passions: the Leakey family and the quest for humankind's beginnings. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780684824703
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