Leakey

Family of British and Kenyan archaeologists, anthropologists, and paleontologists, including Louis (1903-1972), who used a series of fossil discoveries in Tanzania made largely by his wife Mary (1913-1996) to argue influentially that humans had evolved in Africa. Several members of their family have continued their research.

Family of British scientists. Louis (1903-1972) is known for fossil discoveries of early humans made in close collaboration with his wife, Mary (1913-1996). In 1959, while working in Tanzania, Africa, Mary Leakey uncovered skull and teeth fragments of a species called Zinjanthropus, now thought to be about 1.75 million years old. The next year the Leakeys discovered remains of a larger-brained species, called Homo habilis. Their discoveries provided powerful evidence that human ancestors were of greater age than was previously thought, and that they had evolved in Africa rather than in Asia. Their son Richard (born 1944) and his wife Meave (born 1942) have continued the family's research and discoveries. In 2001 Meave Leakey discovered a skull belonging to an entirely new genus, called Kenyanthropus platyops and believed to be 3.5 million years old.