Louis Leakey
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (August 7, 1903 – October 1, 1972) was a British archaeologist whose work was important in establishing human evolutionary development in Africa.
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Early life
Born in Kabete Kenya, he grew up, played, and learned to hunt with Africans. He also learned to walk with the distinctive gait of the Kikuyu and speak their language as fluently as English. At 13, after discovering stone tools, he began to develop his lifelong passion for prehistory.It was in 1916, at the age of 14, when Leakey truly realized he was meant for archeaology, after reading a book about prehistoric people. He collected and classified as many prehistoric tools, which turned out to be ancient african tools. But that did not stop Louis. He continued to search for prehistoric objects for the rest of his life.
He studied at Cambridge University, graduating in 1926. His younger brother Rufus Leakey died at an early age. He discovered several human and proto-human skeletons or partial skeletons at Olduvai Gorge and Rusinga Island, firmly outlining man's early ancestral tree. Among his many extraordinary finds was the 1959 unearthing of 'Zinjanthropus', a robust hominid that hinted at the great complexity of mankind's evolutionary roots.
In 1972, Leakey died of a heart attack in London. He was 69.
Leakey's Angels
One of Leakey's greatest legacies stems from his role in fostering field research of primates in their natural habitats, which he understood as key to unraveling the mysteries of human evolution. Leakey personally chose three female researchers, later dubbed 'Leakey's Angels', who each went on to become giants in the field of primatology. Jane Goodall became the first of Leakey's Angels in 1957, when she began her first field study of chimpanzee culture in the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. In 1967, Dian Fossey became Leakey's second Angel, beginning her extended study of mountain gorillas in the Virunga Volcanoes of Rwanda. In 1971, Biruté Galdikas became the third, when she began field studies of Orangutans in the jungles of Borneo.
Prominent family members
Louis Leakey was married to Mary Leakey, who made perhaps the most important discovery in Palaeolithic archeology, the Laetoli footprints. The footprints, which established the earliest record of truly bipedal gait, were found preserved in volcanic ash in Tanzania.
He is also the father of paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey. Leakey's cousin, Rea Leakey, was a British tank commander during World War II.
See also
External links
- LeakeyFoundation.org - The Leakey Foundation: committed to research related to human origins
- TalkOrigins.org - Louis Leakey
Categories
British archaeologists | Deaths from cardiovascular disease | Paleoanthropologists | Hubbard Medal recipients | 1903 births | 1972 deaths