Encyclopedia of Evolution.pdf - Online Reading Center

allowed Louis and Mary Leakey to continue their research.
Throughout the 1950s they excavated fossils from Olduvai
Gorge in Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Mary Leakey discovered
the first significant Olduvai hominin fossil in 1959.
Louis Leakey named it Zinjanthropus boisei and claimed it as
a human ancestor. Because of its huge teeth, it has been called
Nutcracker Man. It is now classified in the genus Paranthropus,
along with other robust australopithecines, which
were a side branch of human evolution. Intriguingly, “Zinj”
was found in the same deposit as primitive stone tools, which
led Louis Leakey to believe that Zinj had made the tools.
The National Geographic Society in the United States funded
and publicized the findings, which allowed Louis and Mary
Leakey to greatly expand their work. They found more hominin
fossils, including some that much more closely resembled
modern humans. Louis Leakey, together with collaborators,
classified these latter fossils into a new species, Homo Habilis
(“handy man”), so named because it, not Zinj, was the
species that was most likely to have made the tools. The tools
represented the most primitive type of stone implements;
this type is called Oldowan, named after Olduvai Gorge (see
technology). From the original naming of Zinjanthropus to
the discovery of H. habilis, Louis Leakey wanted to demonstrate
that the human evolutionary lineage was separate from
the australopithecines such as those discovered in Southern
Africa (see Dart, Raymond).
Mary Leakey continued work in Olduvai Gorge, while
Louis Leakey traveled extensively. He was responsible for
starting primatologist Jane Goodall’s long study of chimpanzee
behavior (see Goodall, Jane), as well as a similar
study of gorillas by primatologist Dian Fossey. He considered
long-term, detailed studies of modern primates essential for
understanding the behavior of human evolutionary ancestors.
He was very popular in America where he gave speeches and
raised money for his research. Accustomed to making bold
projections that eventually yielded good results, Louis Leakey
also took bold steps that failed, in particular his search for
human ancestors in the Calico Hills of California, where
humans did not exist until about 11,000 years ago.
Louis Leakey’s son (see Leakey, Richard) had begun
his own ambitious fieldwork to study human origins, leading
to personal and professional tension with his father. Richard
Leakey discovered the fossil skull ER 1470, which appeared
to indicate that the human lineage was separate from that of
the australopithecines, and thus to support Louis Leakey’s
views. This led to reconciliation, shortly before Louis Leakey’s
death on August 1, 1972.
Further Reading
Foley, Jim. “Biographies: Louis Leakey.” Available online. URL:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/lleakey.html. Accessed April
28, 2005.
Leakey, Louis S. B. By the Evidence: Memoirs, 1932–1951. New
York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974.
Morell, V. Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for
Humankind’s Beginnings. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.
Willis, Delta. The Leakey Family: Leaders in the Search for Human
Origins. New York: Facts On File, 1992.
Leakey, Richard
Leakey, Mary (1913–1996) Kenyan Anthropologist Mary
Douglas Leakey was the wife of anthropologist Louis S. B.
Leakey (see Leakey, Louis S. B.) and made numerous important
contributions to an understanding of human evolution.
Mary Douglas Nicol, born February 6, 1913, traveled
through Europe as a child. Her visits to prehistoric sites such
as Cro-Magnon caves stimulated an interest in archaeology.
This, together with her artistic talent, allowed her to work
as an illustrator of archaeological artifacts in England. Louis
Leakey asked her to illustrate one of his books. They married
in 1937, and she spent the rest of her life excavating fossil
hominins and other primates in Africa (see primates).
In 1948 she discovered the fossil of Proconsul africanus, an
ancestor of modern apes.
It was Mary Leakey who in 1959 found the specimen
that Louis named Zinjanthropus boisei (now classified as a
robust australopithecine in the genus Paranthropus). She
reconstructed the fossil from hundreds of fragments. This
was the discovery that earned Louis and Mary Leakey their
fame and funding from the National Geographic Society. It
was Mary Leakey who in 1961 found the remains of a largebrained
hominin that lived at the same time as Zinjanthropus,
which Louis Leakey described as Homo Habilis. This species
is still considered the oldest member of the human genus, and
the first to make stone tools.
Mary Leakey continued her work after Louis Leakey
died in 1972. In 1976 she made one of the most important
discoveries in the study of human evolution. About 30 miles
(50 km) south of Olduvai Gorge at Laetoli, she discovered
footprints preserved in what had been volcanic ash (see australopithecines).
The footprints, made about three million
years ago, appeared to have been made by Australopithecus
afarensis. Mary Leakey died December 9, 1996.
Further Reading
Leakey, Mary. Olduvai Gorge: My Search for Early Man. New York:
Collins, 1979.
———. Disclosing the Past: An Autobiography. New York: Doubleday,
1984.
Willis, Delta. The Leakey Family: Leaders in the Search for Human
Origins. New York: Facts On File, 1992.
Leakey, Richard (1944– ) Kenyan Anthropologist Born
December 19, 1944, Richard Erskine Leakey is an anthropologist
who has made tremendous contributions to the scientific
understanding of human evolution. He was the second
of the three sons of famous anthropologists in Kenya (see
Leakey, Louis S. B.; Leakey, Mary). When young, Richard
Leakey did not show intellectual promise, and he dropped
out of high school. He was more interested in trapping wild
animals and supplying skeletons to research institutions and
museums. Then he started a safari business and taught himself
how to fly small aircraft. These experiences were later to
prove valuable in ways he did not anticipate. In 1964 Richard
Leakey led an expedition to a fossil site he had seen from
the air. He discovered that he enjoyed looking for fossils, and
that without formal training in anthropology he received no
credit for fossil discoveries. In 1965 Richard Leakey went to