Louis Leakey

**Louis Leakey** (L.S.B. Leakey, 7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan archaeologist, anthropologist and naturalist.

His work was important in establishing human evolutionary development in East Africa. He also played a major role in creating organizations for future research in Africa and for protecting wildlife there.

Leakey was the third of the three great anthropologists of British origin who made Africa their home: the others were Robert Broom and Raymond Dart.

He started a tradition of palaeoanthropological inquiry in Kenya. His own family carried on the 'family firm'. Several of them became well-known anthropologists and fossil hunters.

Louis took part in national events of British East Africa and then Kenya at critical times.

In biology he asserted Charles Darwin's theory of evolution unswervingly, and set about to prove Darwin's hypothesis that man arose in Africa. He was also a devout Christian.chapter 3 

## Palaeoanthropologist par excellence
### Vindication at Olduvai 
Louis and Mary spent all the time they could at Olduvai Gorge, starting in 1951. So far they had discovered only stone tools. A more extensive excavation came in 1952. They found what Louis termed an Oldowan "slaughter-house", an ancient bog where animals had been trapped and butchered. Louis was so carried away that he worked without his hat and his hair was bleached white from the sun. They stopped in 1953.

In 1955 they excavated again with Jean Brown. She related that he preferred to be called Louis, was absent-minded, once had everyone looking for spectacles that were around his neck, wore pants with the buttons off and shoes with holes in them, charged about everywhere and once collapsed unconscious. He was completely happy. and a hefty grant to continue work at Olduvai.

Zinj was far older than anyone had imagined. Scientists swarmed to Africa. Louis had proved Darwin right. He was 19. From then on she had her own staff and associates.

Mary picked and sieved at the site from early morning dressed in old clothes, chain smoking cigarettes, always surrounded by her Dalmatian. She and Louis communicated by radio. On weekends he drove non-stop at high speed the 357&nbsp;miles between Olduvai and Nairobi. The teen-age boys, Richard and Philip, were on site during holidays and vacations.

Their home in Nairobi was a circus, figuratively speaking, when they were there. Dinner guests were frequent. Important guests stayed for weeks if they could stand it. They shared the quarters and the dinner table with the Dalmatians, hyraxes, a monkey, a civet cat, an African eagle owl, tropical fish, snakes, such as vipers, and a python.

The extended families of twenty African staff lived in cinderblock huts in the yard. Mary had switched to cigars and the ashes often fell into the food. Both Louis and Mary cooked. Louis never stopped talking; his stories were endless. He literally ran through the day, making long lists of things to be done, which he never completed. He drove recklessly through the streets of Nairobi, often reading and writing as he drove. Louis cabled him immediately and had some strong words at this suggestion of his incompetence. Clark apologized.chapter 14

In 1960 Louis, his son Philip and Ray Pickering discovered a fossil he termed "Chellean Man", as it was in context with Oldowan tools, the first such find. After reconstruction Louis and Mary called it "Pinhead." It was subsequently included with *Homo erectus* and was in fact contemporaneous with *Paranthropus*, which on that account cannot have been in the human line. For many years Louis believed *erectus* was the user of the tools and *Australopithecus* was not.

In 1961 Louis got a salary as well as a grant from National Geographic and turned over the acting directorship of Coryndon to a subordinate. He created the Centre for Prehistory and Paleontology on the same grounds, moved his collections to it, and appointed himself director. This was his new operations center.

He opened another excavation at Fort Ternan on Lake Victoria. Shortly after, Heselon discovered *Kenyapithecus wickeri*, the species name from the owner of the property, which Louis promptly celebrated with George Gaylord Simpson, who happened to be present, aboard the *Miocene Lady* with Leakey Safari Specials, a drink made of condensed milk and cognac.

In 1962 Louis was visiting Olduvai when Ndibo Mbuika discovered the first tooth of *Homo habilis* at MNK. Louis and Mary thought it was female and named her Cinderella, or Cindy. Phillip Tobias identified Jonny's Child with it and Raymond Dart came up with the name *Homo habilis* at Louis' request, which Tobias translated as 'handyman'.chapter 16 It was seen as intermediary between gracile *Australopithecus* and *Homo*.chapter 16

### Leakey's Angels 
One of Louis's greatest legacies was fostering field research of primates in their natural habitats. He understood this helped to unravel the mysteries of human evolution. He chose three female researchers: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas. They were dubbed 'Leakey's Angels'. Each went on to become an important scholar in the field of primatology.

### Prominent organizations
* **1958**. Louis founded the Tigoni Primate research Center with Cynthia Booth on her farm north of Nairobi. Later it was the National Primate Research Center, currently the Institute of Primate Research, now in Nairobi. As the Tigoni center, it funded Leakey's Angels.
* **1961**. Louis created the Centre for Prehistory and Paleontology on the same grounds as Coryndon Museum, appointing himself director.
* **1968**. Louis assisted with the founding of The Leakey Foundation, to ensure the legacy of his life's work in the study of human origins. The Leakey Foundation exists today as the number one funder of human origins research in the United States.

## Books 
A selection:
* Adam's Ancestors: the evolution of Man and his culture (1934). Ran to four editions, very popular.
* White African: an early autobiography (1936)
* The Miocene Hominoidea of East Africa, with Wilfred Le Gros Clark. (1951)
* Olduvai Gorge: a report on the evolution of the hand-axe culture in Beds I–IV (1951)
* Olduvai Gorge: a preliminary report on the geology and fauna, 1951–61 (1965)
* Olduvai Gorge, 1965–1967 (1970)
* By the evidence: Memoirs, 1932–1951

## The family 
### Prominent family members 
Louis Leakey was married to Mary Leakey, who made the noteworthy discovery of fossil footprints at Laetoli. Found preserved in volcanic ash in Tanzania, they are the earliest record of bipedal gait.

He is also the father of paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey and the botanist Colin Leakey. Louis' cousin, Nigel Gray Leakey, was a recipient of the Victoria Cross during World War II.

### Family tree 
## Related pages
* List of Kenyan scientists

## References