The Leakey Foundation | The Leakey Family Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey Louis Leakey in Kenya in 1955. Louis Leakey (b. 1903, d. 1972) was a tireless promoter of the study of human origins. With his theoretical and paleontological work in the field, he had a considerable impact on the science of early human evolution. In addition to the 20 books and over 150 articles he wrote in his lifetime as well as the multiple fossil and stone tool discoveries that contributed so significantly to our understanding of the field, he was also largely responsible for convincing other scientists that Africa was the key location in which to search for evidence of human origins. In the face of great opposition, he strongly supported Darwin’s assertion that human evolution began in Africa. As it turns out, Leakey’s early, controversial, yet unwavering position that Africa was the cradle of humanity has held up against modern scientific scrutiny and is now universally accepted.

Louis was born on August 7, 1903, at Kabete Mission (near Nairobi) in Kenya, where his parents Harry and Mary (Bazett) Leakey were English missionaries to the Kikuyu tribe. Louis grew up speaking Kikuyu as fluently as English, and at age thirteen he was initiated as a member of the Kikuyu tribe. He later wrote a definitive study of their culture in 1937. Leakey began his university career at Cambridge University in 1922, but a rugby injury caused him to postpone his studies. He then left to help manage a paleontological expedition to Africa. He graduated with degrees in both anthropology and archaeology in 1926. After completing his degrees, Leakey began leading expeditions to Olduvai, a river gorge in Tanzania, where he found important fossils and Stone Age tools. In 1948 he reported finding a 20-million-year-old skull he named Proconsul africanus on Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria, Kenya.

Though now considered to be too specialized to have been a direct ancestor of current ape and human populations, Proconsul is still deemed scientifically valuable as a model for early human ancestors. Louis and Mary Leakey with the jaw of Zinjanthropus. Photo by Des Bartlett from The Leakey Foundation archive. The first significant hominid fossil attributed to Leakey, a robust skull with huge teeth dated to 1.75 million years ago, was found by Louis’ collaborator and second wife Mary Leakey. She found it in deposits that also contained stone tools. Louis claimed it was a human ancestor and called it Zinjanthropus boisei. It is now understood to be a form of Australopithecus. Another important discovery was the 1964 reporting of Homo habilis (named by Louis, Phillip Tobias and John Napier), which Leakey believed was the first member of the actual human genus as well as the first true toolmaker. Though the interpretations Leakey’s fossil finds were and still are controversial, their significance to the field of human origins is generally acknowledged. Leakey had a significant effect on not only the field of paleoanthropology but also primatology.

He was responsible for initiating Jane Goodall’s long-term field study of chimpanzees in the wild, and he helped obtain and coordinate funding for similar projects such as Dian Fossey’s work with mountain gorillas in Rwanda and Birute Galdikas’ work with orangutans in the Sarawak region of Indonesia. Always a dynamic and energetic man, Leakey kept up a rigorous schedule of lecturing and fundraising. In 1972, while on route to a speaking engagement in London, Louis Leakey suffered a heart attack and died. Louis Leakey radically changed the way we now view early humans. Though he always had his detractors, Louis Leakey is considered to be a significant contributor to the understanding of our origins. He pushed back the known dates for the existence of various species, changed phylogenies to include the existence of parallel lines of evolution in the human family, stimulated research in new fields like primatology, and generated interest and publicity for the study of human origins. Mary Douglas Leakey Mary Leakey. Photo from The Leakey Foundation archive.

Mary Leakey (b.1913, d.1996) was one of the world’s most renowned hunters of early human fossils. She is credited with many discoveries that have changed the way scientists think about human evolution. She is considered to be a preeminent contributor to the field of human origins. Born Mary Douglas Nicol on February 6, 1913, she spent her early childhood traveling throughout Europe. During her travels, she was exposed to prehistoric sites such as the caves at Pech Merl in Dordogne, which influenced her to plan a career in geology and archeology. This was not a typical path for a woman at the time. She also showed artistic ability and worked as an illustrator at the Hembury Dig in Devon, England, at the age of seventeen. She worked for two years at the dig, illustrating the archaeological progress. She had a special interest in the Stone Age, and she did expert illustrations of Stone Age tools and other artifacts. In 1937, she married Louis Leakey, whom she met through his request to illustrate one of his texts. Mary Leakey with proconsul in 1948.

In 1948, Mary found her first truly important fossil of her long career as an archaeologist, Proconsul africanus. The fossil consisted of half the skull, the upper and lower jaws, and all the teeth. In 1959, she discovered a hominid skull (which she reconstructed from hundreds of fragments) that her husband named Zinjanthropus boisei (later reclassified Australopithecus boisei), which first showed the great antiquity of hominids in Africa. Zinjanthropus boisei was dated to 1.75 million years ago, and that radically changed the concept of the timeline of human evolution. This find was also fortuitous for the Leakeys in that it drew attention and funding from the National Geographic Society, thus ensuring their continuing research. In 1961 Mary found remains of a large-brained hominid living at the same time as the Australopithecine, but belonging to the genus Homo. They called it Homo habilis, the tool user. In 1976 and 1977, Mary made what she considered the most exciting find of her career.

About 30 miles south of the Olduvai Gorge at a site called Laetoli, Mary and her team found amazingly well-preserved hominid footprints in volcanic beds known as tuffs. The footprints seemed to match the fossils found in the same area that belonged to the species Australopithecus afarensis (2.9 to 3.5 million years ago). During this same time period, Mary and her team also found remains of 25 early hominids and an array of 15 new animal species, one of the most plentiful lot of fossil finds ever. Mary continued her interest and contributions to the field of paleontology well into her retirement. She passed away in 1996 at the age of 83. Be a social primate. Get email updates from The Leakey Foundation. The Leakey Foundation's mission is to increase scientific knowledge, education, and public understanding of human origins, evolution, behavior and survival. The Leakey Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization.

Richard Leakey on a conservation crusade (just don't mention God) | Post Magazine | South China Morning Post South China Morning Post Long Reads Richard Leakey on a conservation crusade (just don't mention God) A scion of the Leakey family – whose fossil discoveries helped reveal how humans evolved – Richard has also been hailed as a saviour of the African elephant. Sarah Lazarus wonders whether Brad Pitt will do justice to this charismatic Kenyan in a… 0Comments Richard Leakey's story is so extraordinary and so packed with drama - so much, in fact, like the plot of a Hollywood movie - it's no surprise to learn that Angelina Jolie is going to make a film about him. Africa, which is due for release late next year, has the starriest cast in the galaxy. Jolie has chosen her husband, Brad Pitt, to play Leakey while she will take the role of his wife and Meryl Streep will play his mother. When I was at university, studying for a master's degree in palaeoanthropology (human evolution), my friends and I worshipped the Leakey family.

Between them, Richard, his parents (Louis and Mary) and his wife (Meave) have discovered a significant proportion of the fossils that have revealed how human beings evolved. For a group of atheists, the Leakeys were the closest thing we had to idols. Richard Leakey is better known, however, as a conservationist and a politician. His life has been a turbulent mix of adventure, triumph, strife and misfortune, all played out against the colourful backdrop of Kenya. In an African nation beset by poverty and crime, Leakey has battled against a political system disfigured by corruption and cronyism. We meet at the Mandarin Grill & Bar, in the Mandarin Oriental hotel, Central. Leakey is in Hong Kong on a whirlwind trip, to give a series of talks, host the Royal Geographical Society's gala dinner, meet sponsors, promote local tour company A2A Safaris, tell everyone about the movie and raise awareness of the plight of elephants in the world's largest ivory-buying market. With a schedule like that I'm lucky to get time with him. Leakey has a huge presence and masses of charisma.

Pitt will have to act his socks off if he is to convey the charm, force and complexity of the real thing, not to mention the sonorous voice, with its very British accent. Leakey weighs his words with care and delivers them with authority. He's famously good at fundraising and it's easy to see why people find him persuasive. As we talk, a crowd gathers to listen. They admire a photo of Leakey as a young man on the cover of a book and debate whether Pitt measures up in the looks department. They decide that he doesn't quite. At 70, Leakey's face is now mottled with skin cancers but he remains a handsome man. Africa is loosely based on Wildlife Wars, Leakey's memoir of the late 1980s and early 90s, when he successfully combated ivory poaching in Kenya. Having done it before, there's room for hope that he can do it again, although the scale of the challenge is daunting. "The threat to elephants is greater than it's ever been," says Leakey.

"It's partly because the human population in Kenya has increased and people need to make a livelihood, but particularly because the economies of Asian countries, especially China, have grown exponentially. "Ivory is part of Chinese culture and history - it's a commodity that indicates a certain status. If we're serious about saving a species as important and as symbolic as the elephant, then we've got to bite the bullet and say, 'We don't need ivory.' It's complete and utter nonsense to say, 'We need it.' What modern society needs is a healthy environment across the planet, and that includes elephants." It's estimated that 33,000 African elephants are killed for their ivory every year. Last year, a tipping point was reached: more elephants are now being killed than are being born. With only 350,000 left in the wild, they could be driven to extinction within a decade. And it's not just elephants - rhinos are being slaughtered for their precious horns (worth more than twice the price of gold) and lions and other big cats are also under attack. Africa is part of Leakey's strategy. He thinks the film could be enormously influential in changing public opinion.

"If the Chinese public hear the message coming not from Richard Leakey but from Brad Pitt, it'll have a far bigger impact. A really good blockbuster that wins awards and nominations, and leaves the audience feeling very positive and sympathetic to elephants, could be a talking point for years." Leakey suggests people in China are unaware of how ivory is obtained. "They might think it comes from elephants that died naturally," he says. "And they don't understand the fragility of the species." The film will show them the horrifying truth. LEAKEY MET LONDON-BORNMEAVE when she was studying monkeys in Kenya. They married in 1970 and have two daughters, Louise and Samira. Africa won't paint the most flattering portrait of their marriage since it involves "lots of girls and mistresses and all of that". Leakey says that "while it might cause periodic blushes", his wife doesn't mind. "If a hyped-up drama based on grains of truth can help win the fight, we'll do it. We're not teenagers any more." In Kenya, Leakey is working to mobilise the public and drive legal reforms through WildlifeDirect, the activist organisation he co-founded in 2004.

His team was instrumental in the introduction of stringent laws last year; now, anyone caught leaving the country with any amount of ivory on their person faces life imprisonment. As a consequence, poaching in Kenya has lessened. However, Kenyan ports remain the primary gateway for ivory smuggled to the Far East from Tanzania and central African nations. The supply chain is run by criminal gangs who pay poachers, drivers, park rangers, police officers, customs officials and shipping agents to either help out or turn a blind eye. Dismantling the industry won't be easy. Nevertheless, "I can take a very 'hard talk' approach", says Leakey. "As a Kenyan institution, run by Kenyans, [WildlifeDirect is] able to criticise government policy without the pejorative sense that this is a foreign outfit telling them what to do." But there's a flip side: "The people doing the talking can still get into a lot of trouble in a system that's potentially repressive.

Sometimes you step up to the plate and say what needs saying and, as a national, you might end up taking the stick for it, because they can't throw you out." Leakey might be a Kenyan but he's a different colour to most of his countrymen. What was it like growing up as a white boy in British-ruled Kenya in the 40s and 50s? He's quick to correct me. "It's more a question of what it was like growing up in Kenya, because most of the time I was unconscious of the fact I was white. Colour has never been a factor in my life. In fact, the only people who made me aware that I was white were the white people." He says he feels "both white and black". His was a special childhood. Leakey's parents found fossils that revolutionised our understanding of human evolution. They established that the birthplace of our species, Homo sapiens, was Africa and, from there, our ancestors spread out and colonised the planet. Young Richard accompanied his parents on excavations "to the wild and woolly lands of Olduvai Gorge and Lake Victoria".

When at home, he spent much of his time charging around the savannah on his pony, spooking the zebras and smacking the rhinos on their well-armoured behinds. At his colonial, whites-only school, though, he was bullied for being a "nigger lover". Such was the prevailing culture that he received no support from his teachers. He left school at the first opportunity and ran a safari company for a short time before joining the family business. Leakey spent 25 years as a palaeoanthropologist. Serendipity struck in 1967 while he was flying over Lake Turkana, on the border between Kenya and Ethiopia. Looking down he observed that the lake's shores might be good fossil-hunting territory. Returning later by helicopter, he found a treasure trove. He sought funds and started digging. Over the next 20 years, Lake Turkana's sedimentary deposits yielded an extraordinary bounty of bones and stone tools. Leakey and his team's most important discovery was Turkana Boy, who was aged nine to 12 when he died, 1.6 million years ago.

Most fossil finds comprise single teeth or fragments of bone so this almost complete skeleton, a member of the pre-human species Homo erectus, was a startling discovery. At university, learning about Turkana Boy and his relatives, I dreamed of joining the anthropologists at work under the blazing African sun, unearthing fossils that would answer the most important questions of all: who are we? And how did we become this? From the vantage point of a chilly English lecture hall it all seemed impossibly glamorous and exciting. Leakey's recollections suggest that those romantic visions were - surprisingly - spot on. "I loved finding fossils. There's an amazing buzz from feeling you're right on the cusp, on top of the pack, driving forward the quest for new knowledge. It was heady stuff for a young man." I ask him why he thinks it's an important subject. His answer comes as another surprise. Evolutionary studies act implicitly to rebuff creationist theories, but I'd always assumed that was a consequence, rather than a motivating factor, for scientists - probably because I grew up in a largely secular country. "In the developing world, religion has played a very big part in getting people to line up about moral codes and approaches to problems.

You hear in places that it's 'God's will' that the rain has disappeared, that the oceans are rising, that people get diseases - it's 'inshallah'. "Science can now give people a certainty about what we are that religion gave their parents and forefathers. If we're going to keep this planet from disaster it's especially important to educate boys and girls in the developing world that their destiny belongs to them. It won't be decided by a god, but by their knowledge and commitment to build the planet." Leakey says that, even 30 years ago, a Darwinian explanation of human evolution couldn't be substantiated due to the lack of fossil evidence. That's no longer the case. "The amount and the quality of what has been discovered makes it almost as solid a science as chemistry or physics. How we have failed, and continue to fail, is in bringing the world with us. Scientists know, but people in many parts of the world don't know. I think it's our fault because we haven't taken the trouble to go and preach every Sunday." Leakey worked as head of Kenya's National Museum until 1989, when he switched careers.

Kenya's then president, Daniel arap Moi, asked him to take over the Wildlife Conservation and Management Department (shortly after superseded by the Kenya Wildlife Service) in response to the international outcry over poaching. When Leakey took the helm, the department was a mess. A lack of funding and entrenched corruption had left staff ill-equipped and demoralised while elephants were sitting ducks for poachers. Leakey took characteristically bold steps, tackling both the supply and demand ends of the ivory trade. He announced his arrival by organising an event at which millions of dollars' worth of confiscated ivory tusks were piled into a "macabre sculpture" and set alight. The giant bonfire made global headlines. Impressed, the World Bank granted him US$150 million for conservation programmes. Leakey cleared the department of dishonest staff and lobbied successfully for a world ban on ivory trading. He also took on the poachers, implementing a much-reported "shoot-to-kill" policy. "That's a complete misconception, perpetrated by the press because they love Rambo stuff," he says.

"We never implemented a shoot-to-kill policy and it's not something I believe in." Conscious I'm a member of the guilty profession, I ask him to tell the true story. Leakey says that when he took over, about 70 rangers were being killed every year. Armed with Enfield rifles dating from the first world war, they were hopelessly outgunned by the poachers, mostly demobilised militia from Somalia carrying modern assault rifles. "I re-armed my men, had them properly trained and made it clear that if you shoot a man in uniform in a wildlife area, fire will be returned and you will likely die. But I told my men that I'd much prefer they capture their quarry alive, as there's nothing more useful than a turncoat." Whatever the policy, the body count was high. Poachers invariably chose to fight to the death rather than surrender. Leakey's diary entry for July 3, 1989, as published in Wildlife Wars, reads: "On the poaching scene we seem to be making good progress.

I believe the number of poachers killed during June was 22 and about 7 captured or wounded." His tactics were phenomenally effective and within six months the poaching problem had evaporated. Leakey was the toast of the international media but, at home, he'd stirred up a hornet's nest. Ending the lucrative trade earned him powerful enemies. In 1993, Leakey was piloting a light aircraft when the engine cut out. He managed to crash-land in a field but his lower legs were crushed. The infection that set in nearly killed him, and both legs had to be amputated. He now walks on prosthetic limbs. It has never been proven that the plane was sabotaged, but Leakey has no doubts. "I lived under considerable pressure, with numerous death threats. It's widely accepted that it was an attempt to kill me. Could we prosecute somebody for it? No. Do I want to? No. The person who probably stage-managed it - who I can't name - is somebody I'm quite friendly with. "That's weird," I say. "That's Africa," is all he will add on the subject.

Leakey mentioned earlier that Jolie's film will explore how his choices affected his family and caused arguments. How did his wife feel about him exposing himself to such danger? "Meave wanted me to pull back. She wasn't happy about me going into wildlife because I'm very outspoken and very confrontational. I'm not able to deal with things subtly." He parodies his own attitude, "If you're bad then I'll tell you you're bad, and I'll make you good, dead or alive! "My wife is extraordinarily understanding and tolerant. She knows the man she married. I'm not pleased to say it but I've always wanted to do things my way. That's part of the package. Probably not a very attractive part, but there it is." After five years heading the Kenya Wildlife Service, Leakey was finally outmanoeuvred by his foes. They launched a smear campaign, accusing him of arrogance and racism and of valuing Kenya's wildlife more than its people. Stripped of his powers, Leakey resigned, but that didn't mark the end of his battles in the political arena. He established an opposition party, Safina, and won a seat in parliament in 1997.

Two years later, Moi asked Leakey to join his administration, appointing him as cabinet secretary and head of the civil service. International donors had lost faith and frozen Kenya's aid payments, and Moi hoped that Leakey would help him regain their trust. The partnership didn't last - Leakey's efforts to clean up corruption were stymied by vested interests and, in 2001, he was forced to step down. Having hit retirement age, Leakey is showing no signs of easing off the throttle, despite a medical history that would have consigned most of us to permanent bed rest. Leakey's kidneys failed many years ago and both have been replaced. In 2013, he had to undergo a liver transplant, after which the doctors thought he might die. I ask him how he has managed to cope with ill health. "What ill health?" he asks. "What nonsense. I'm as fit as a fiddle." In recent years he has returned to his first passion, palaeoanthropology. He was appointed professor at New York's Stony Brook University in 2002 and established the Turkana Basin Institute, a field station for scientific research.

Previously, all significant fossil finds in the area were dispatched to museums in the capital, Nairobi, but now they are kept at the institute. "I want to make the Turkana people stakeholders in their own heritage," says Leakey. "I want to show them these wonderful things and say, 'Come and work here, be the discoverers, be the technicians, be the students doing PhDs.'" He's also hatching a pair of ambitious plans with Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind. The first involves the Serengeti, an area that extends across a large swathe of Tanzania and Kenya, and plays host to the annual migration of more than 1.5 million wildebeest, as well as zebras, gazelles and other animals. For some years, an argument has raged over plans to build a multi-lane highway across the Serengeti, to facilitate the export of oil and minerals from central Africa to China. The road would block the migration, with untold consequences for wildlife. Conservationists have successfully stalled the project thus far but Leakey is convinced the road's construction is inevitable.

He and Libeskind have proposed building an elevated highway, which will soar above the plains, leaving the wildebeest to continue their long march underneath. Their second project is to build a museum - "an architectural masterpiece" - on the shores of Lake Turkana, which will celebrate the area's fossils and tell the story of human evolution. "It's for the African diaspora - and that's everybody in the world. It'll be like a pilgrimage; come and see where you came from." Leakey is seeking US$40 million to realise his dream. "It'll be the greatest museum of mankind ever built. Somebody could make their place in history. Their name will be there forever. If you've got the money to spare, come and talk to me." The inveterate fundraiser asks me if I'll help him spread the word. The idea sounds wonderful, so I promise that I will do my best.

Homo habilis | The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program Where Lived: Eastern and Southern Africa When Lived: 2.4 million to 1.4 million years ago This species , one of the earliest members of the genus Homo, has a slightly larger braincase and smaller face and teeth than in Australopithecus or older hominin species. But it still retains some ape-like features, including long arms and a moderately- prognathic face. Its name, which means ‘handy man’, was given in 1964 because this species was thought to represent the first maker of stone tools. Currently, the oldest stone tools are dated slightly older than the oldest evidence of the genus Homo. Year of Discovery: 1960 History of Discovery: A team led by scientists Louis and Mary Leakey uncovered the fossilized remains of a unique early human between 1960 and 1963 at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The type speciman, OH 7, was found by Jonathan Leakey, so was nicknamed "Jonny's child".

Because this early human had a combination of features different from those seen in Australopithecus, Louis Leakey, South African scientist Philip Tobias, and British scientist John Napier declared these fossils a new species , and called them Homo habilis (meaning 'handy man'), because they suspected that it was this slightly larger-brained early human that made the thousands of stone tools also found at Olduvai Gorge. Height: average 3 ft 4 in - 4 ft 5 in (100 - 135 cm) Weight: average 70 lbs (32 kg) We don’t know everything about our early ancestors—but we keep learning more! Paleoanthropologists are constantly in the field, excavating new areas, using groundbreaking technology, and continually filling in some of the gaps about our understanding of human evolution . Below are some of the still unanswered questions about Homo habilis that may be answered with future discoveries: Was H. habilis on the evolutionary lineage that evolved into later species of Homo and even perhaps our species, Homo sapiens? Are H. habilis and Homo rudolfensis indeed different species, or are they part of a single, variable species?

Or was one the ancestor of the other? If H. habilis is not the ancestor of Homo erectus, how does it fit into our evolutionary tree? H. habilis is one of the earliest members of the genus Homo. Was there a relationship between the origin of this genus and climate change – either with an increased period of climatic fluctuations, or major episodes of global cooling and drying leading to the spread of C4 grasslands? First paper: Leakey, L.S.B., Tobias, P.V., Napier, J.R., 1964. A new species of the genus Homo from Olduvai Gorge. Nature 202, 7-9. Other recommended readings: Bobe, R., Behrensmeyer, A.K., 2004. The expansion of grassland systems in Africa in relation to mammalian evolution and the origin of the genus Homo. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 207, 399-420. Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Pickering, T.R., Semaw, S., Rogers, M.J., 2005.

Cutmarked bones from Pliocene archaeological sites at Gona, Afar, Ethiopia: Implications for the functions of the world’s oldest stone tools. Journal of Human Evolution 48, 109-121. Haeusler, M., McHenry, H., 2004. Body proportions of Homo habilis reviewed. Journal of Human Evolution 46, 433-465. Spoor, F., Leakey, M.G., Gathogo, P.N., Brown, F.H., Antón, S.C., McDougall, I., Kiarie, C. Manthi, F.K, Leakey, L.N., 2007. Implications of new early Homo fossils from Ileret, east of Lake Turkana, Kenya. Nature 448, 688–691. Ungar, P.S., Grine, F.E., Teaford, M.F., El-Zaatari, S., 2006. Dental microwear and diets of African early Homo.

Journal of Human Evoution 50, 78–95 Ungar, P.S., Grine, F.E., Teaford, M.F., 2006. Diet in early Homo: a review of the evidence and a new model of adaptive versatility. Annual Review of Anthropology 35, 209-228. How They Survived: Early Homo had smaller teeth than Australopithecus, but their tooth enamel was still thick and their jaws were still strong, indicating their teeth were still adapted chewing some hard foods (possibly only seasonally when their preferred foods became less available). Dental microwear studies suggest that the diet of H. habilis was flexible and versatile and that they were capable of eating a broad range of foods, including some tougher foods like leaves, woody plants, and some animal tissues, but that they did not routinely consume or specialize in eating hard foods like brittle nuts or seeds, dried meat, or very hard tubers. Another line of evidence for the diet of H. habilis comes from some of the earliest cut- and percussion-marked bones, found back to 2.6 million years ago.

Scientists usually associate these traces of butchery of large animals, direct evidence of meat and marrow eating, with the earliest appearance of the genus Homo, including H. habilis. Many scientists think early Homo, including H. habilis, made and used the first stone tools found in the archaeological record—these also date back to about 2.6 million years ago; however, this hypothesis is difficult to test because several other species of early human lived at the same time, and in the same geographic area, as where traces of the earliest tool use have been found. Evolutionary Tree Information: This species , along with H. rudolfensis, is one of the earliest members of the genus Homo. Many scientists think it is an ancestor of later species of Homo, possibly on our own branch of the family tree. Naming this species required a redefining of the genus Homo (e.g., reducing the lower limit of brain size), sparking an enormous debate about the validity of this species. While scientists used to think that H.

habilis was the ancestor of Homo erectus, recent discoveries in 2000 of a relatively late 1.44 million-year-old Homo habilis (KNM-ER 42703) and a relatively early 1.55 million-year-old H. erectus ( KNM-ER 42700 ) from the same area of northern Kenya (Ileret, Lake Turkana) challenged the conventional view that these species evolved one after the other. Instead, this evidence - along with other fossils - demonstrate that they co-existed in Eastern Africa for almost half a million years. Louis Leakey: The Father of Hominid Hunting | Science | Smithsonian Louis Leakey: The Father of Hominid Hunting Louis Leakey popularized the study of human evolution and sparked the search for human ancestors in Africa June 13, 2012 Mary and Louis Leakey. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives Louis Leakey was not the first person to ever find an ancient hominid fossil. But more than anyone else, he promoted and popularized the study of human evolution.

His work spurred others to go to Africa to find our ancestors’ remains, he and his wife raised their son to go into the family business, and he initiated some of the first field studies of our closest living relatives, the great apes, as a way to understand early hominids. For all of these accomplishments, I call Leakey the Father of Hominid Hunting. Leakey was born and raised in Kenya. He found is first stone tools as a teenager, which helped convince him that Africa was the homeland of humankind. That put him in the minority. During the first half of the 20th century, anthropologists considered Asia, or perhaps Europe, to be the birthplace of humans . That’s where all of the hominid fossils had been found. That didn’t deter Leakey. In 1926, he set off for his first archaeological expedition in East Africa. It was just one year after Raymond Dart announced the discovery of the Taung Child , an australopithecine and the first hominid fossil to be recognized in Africa. His goal was to find the earliest fossil of our genus, Homo.

But for the next three decades Leakey’s expeditions uncovered only stone tools and the first fossil skull of the earliest known ape, the 18-million-year-old Proconsul . It wasn’t until July 1959 that Leakey’s wife, Mary, while working in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge, found a hominid bone. It was a skull, but not exactly the skull Leakey’s team had been looking for. Based on the skull’s giant teeth and small brain, it was clear that the hominid was not a member of Homo. But Leakey and his wife were excited about the find anyway. They named it Zinjanthropus boisei (now known as Paranthropus boisei) and declared “Zinj” had made the stone tools found nearby (that’s still a matter of debate). Leakey asked Phillip Tobias , a South African anthropologist who died last week, to analyze the skull. Tobias determined it was an australopithecine; the fossil especially resembled Australopithecus (now Paranthropus) robustus, first found in South Africa in the 1930s.

Zinj, eventually dated to 1.75 million years ago, was the first australopithecine found outside South Africa. Even though Mary actually found the fossil, Leakey received much of the credit and became a celebrity—traveling around the world to talk up the discovery and drum up financial support for their fieldwork. More success came in the early 1960s. Mary found additional fossils at Olduvai. But they were different from Zinj. With somewhat larger brains, the fossils looked more human, Leakey thought. He decided the remains represented the earliest member of our genus and our direct ancestor. He called the species Homo habilis, or “handy man.” It was the discovery Leakey had been spent his career looking for. To this day, H. habilis remains one of the most controversial species in the hominid family. Paleoanthropologists disagree on whether the fossils represent one or more species—and whether they’re even Homo or not. Perhaps it’s fitting that one of Leakey’s greatest discoveries—rather, one of his wife’s greatest discoveries—is still contentious.

In his day, some considered Leakey more of a showman than a scientist, but it’s hard to deny how his efforts furthered the study of human evolution. The discoveries at Olduvai Gorge attracted other paleoanthropologists to East Africa, which is still the center of early-hominid research. Leakey’s son Richard was one of those researchers. In 1967, Leakey asked Richard to lead an archaeological expedition in Ethiopia. Richard eventually set out on his own and led the team that discovered the nearly complete Homo erectus skeleton called Turkana Boy . Richard’s wife, and Leakey’s daughter-in-law, Meave, was also a paleoanthropologist and helped discover Australopithecus anamensis (the earliest australopithcine species) and the engimatic Kenyanthropus platyops . Today, Louise Leakey, Leakey’s granddaughter, carries on the family’s homind-hunting tradition. Leakey’s other great achievement was to help launch field studies of great apes. Leakey recognized the importance of studying ape behavior in the wild as a way to better understand the behavior of early hominids and other ancient apes.

In 1960, he sent Jane Goodall to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania to study chimpanzees. In 1967, he helped Dian Fossey establish her fieldwork on the mountain gorillas living in the Virunga Volcanoes of Rwanda. And in 1971, he asked Biruté Galdikas to observe orangutans in Borneo. These three women were pioneers in living among primates as a way to study the animals’ natural behavior, and collectively were known as Leakey’s Ladies. (At least, that’s what I’ve always called them. According to Wikipedia, Leakey’s Angels is the preferred term.) If I may be bold, I’ll call myself a second-generation Leakey Lady. When I was 12 years old, I watched the Dian Fossey biopic, Gorillas in the Mist, on TV. I decided at that moment that I wanted to study primates. Ten years later, I ended up in graduate school ready to do just that. That’s not what I ended up doing with my life. But here I am instead, writing a blog about human evolution.

That never would have happened without Louis Leakey. And for that, I say, Happy Father’s Day, Dr. Leakey. For a more in-depth look at Louis Leakey’s life, read Smithsonian’s “ The Old Man of Olduvai Gorge ” by Roger Lewin.

Question: The Leakey family who concentrated their studies in Kenya were working in what area?
Answer: Paleoanthropology