Louis Leakey
7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972
Louis Leakey was a Kenyan-born British palaeoanthropologist whose excavations at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania helped establish Africa as the region where humans first evolved. Working with his wife Mary Leakey, he was associated with the discovery of Proconsul, Paranthropus boisei and Homo habilis. He also arranged the long-term primate field studies of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Louis Leakey.
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- Alan Paton (1903–1988) Overlapped 69 years →
- Alice Paul (1885–1977) Overlapped 69 years →
- Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) Overlapped 69 years →
- Igor Sikorsky (1889–1972) Overlapped 69 years →
- James Chadwick (1891–1974) Overlapped 69 years →
Life events
He was the son of British missionaries and grew up among the Kikuyu.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe read archaeology and anthropology, graduating in 1926.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe Tanzanian site became the focus of his fieldwork for four decades.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAn archaeologist and illustrator, she became his principal collaborator in the field.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe ran the museum, later the National Museum of Kenya, alongside his fieldwork.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMary Leakey found the fossil ape skull during their expedition to Lake Victoria.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMary Leakey found the hominin cranium now classified as Paranthropus boisei, drawing international funding to the site.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe recruited Jane Goodall, and later Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas, to study chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLeakey, Phillip Tobias and John Napier described the new species in Nature.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe died of a heart attack while visiting England.
Source: en.wikipedia.org