Mary Leakey
6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996
Mary Leakey was a British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose fieldwork in East Africa produced several of the twentieth century's central finds in human origins research. She discovered the Proconsul africanus skull on Rusinga Island and the Zinjanthropus cranium at Olduvai Gorge, and later directed the excavation of the Laetoli footprints in Tanzania. She worked in Kenya and Tanzania for some five decades, much of it alongside her husband Louis Leakey.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Mary Leakey.
- Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002) Overlapped 83 years →
- Bill Hewlett (1913–2001) Overlapped 83 years →
- Cahit Arf (1910–1997) Overlapped 83 years →
- Chien-Shiung Wu (1912–1997) Overlapped 83 years →
- Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004) Overlapped 83 years →
- Dorothy Vaughan (1910–2008) Overlapped 83 years →
Life events
Mary Douglas Nicol was born in London to the landscape painter Erskine Nicol and Cecilia Frere.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgShe took no formal degree, instead attending university lectures and working on excavations in southern England.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe couple went on to collaborate on excavations in Kenya and Tanzania for more than three decades.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgShe settled in Kenya, which became the base for her fieldwork for the rest of her life.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe find was the first fossil ape skull recovered in Africa and drew international attention to the Leakeys' work.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe hominin skull, later classified as Paranthropus boisei, secured long-term funding for the Olduvai excavations.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgShe led the Olduvai research programme as Louis Leakey's work drew him increasingly away from the site.
The trails of fossilised hominin footprints preserved in volcanic ash provided evidence of early bipedal walking.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe memoir recounted her excavations in Britain and East Africa and her working partnership with Louis Leakey.
Source: en.wikipedia.org