Mary Leakey

(1913-1996)

British paleoanthropologist

more_vert

732 views

favorite

About

edit

Jump to

Family
Relationships
Associates
Similar

Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull, an extinct ape which is now believed to be ancestral to humans. She also discovered the robust Zinjanthropus skull at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, eastern Africa. For much of her career she worked with her husband, Louis Leakey, at Olduvai Gorge, where they uncovered fossils of ancient hominines and the earliest hominins, as well as the stone tools produced by the latter group. Mary Leakey developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. She discovered the Laetoli footprints, and at the Laetoli site she discovered hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old.

Key details

edit section

Born	Mary Douglas Nicol 6 February 1913 London, England
Died	9 December 1996 (aged 83) Nairobi, Kenya
Zodiac	Aquarius
Tags	Add tag

Family members

add

Spouse

Louis Leakey 1903-1972 · kenyan-British archaeologist and naturalist · m. 1936 info edit

expand_more

view couple »

Children

Jonathan Harry Erskine info 1st child with Louis Leakey Male b. 4 Nov 1940 · Age: 84 · 1940- · Celebrity Baby

expand_more
Richard Erskine Frere Leakey info 2nd child with Louis Leakey Male b. 19 Dec 1944 d. 2 Jan 2022 · Age: 77 (at death) · 1944-2022 · Kenyan conservationist

expand_more
Philip Leakey info 3rd child with Louis Leakey Male b. 21 Jun 1949 · Age: 76 · 1949- · politician

expand_more