What best explains the work of Louis and Mary Leakey?

Question

I know that they are anthropologists, but what did they do that makes them famous?

Answer 1

Mary Leakey (February 6, 1913 – December 9, 1996) was a British archaeologist, who, along with others, discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island. For much of her career she worked with her husband Louis Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge, uncovering the tools and fossils of ancient hominines. She also discovered the Laetoli footprints. Her first important excavation was at Hembury Fort in Devon, England in May of 1934. Later that year, Mary performed her own excavation at Jaywick Sands. She also published her first scientific paper. The years 1935 to 1959, spent at Olduvai Gorge in the Serengeti plains of Northern Tanzania, yielded many stone tools from primitive stone-chopping instruments to multi-purpose hand axes. These finds came from Stone Age cultures dated as far back as 100,000 to two million years ago. The Leakeys unearthed a Proconsul africanus skull, dated to be twenty million years old, on Rusinga Island, in October of 1947. This skull was the first skull of a fossil ape ever to be found and to this day only three of these apes are known. Their next discovery, in 1959, was a 1.75 million-year-old Australopithecus boisei skull. They also found a less robust Homo habilis skull and bones of a hand. After reconstructing the hand, it was proven the hand was capable of precise manipulation. Many more remains were found at this site. In 1965 the husband and wife team uncovered a Homo erectus skull, dated at one million years old. After Mary's husband passed on, she continued her work at Olduvai and Laetoli. It was here at the Laetoli site, that she discovered Homo fossils that were more than 3.75 million-years-old. She also discovered fifteen new species and one new genus. From 1976 to 1981 Mary and her staff worked to uncover the Laetoli hominid footprint trail which was left in volcanic ashes some 3.6 million years ago. The years that followed this discovery were filled with research at Olduvai and Laetoli, the follow-up work to discoveries and preparing publications.

One of Louis 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 touch 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.

Answer 2

Mary And Louis Leakey

Answer 3

Louis And Mary Leakey

Answer 4

Louis and Mary Leakey were Paleoanthropologists, meaning that they study the ancient bones of our ancestors. What made them famous was the discovery of the earlest human fossil in August 1959. They discovered it in Olduvai Gorge in South Africa. It was called Australopithicus Boisei/ Austrailopithicus Robustus. It became one of the most famous discoveries of the 21st century.

Answer 5

Louis Leakey

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. He studied at Cambridge University, graduating in 1926. 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 touch 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.


Mary Leakey

Her first important excavation was at Hembury Fort in Devon, England in May of 1934. Later that year, Mary performed her own excavation at Jaywick Sands. She also published her first scientific paper. The years 1935 to 1959, spent at Olduvai Gorge in the Serengeti plains of Northern Tanzania, yielded many stone tools from primitive stone-chopping instruments to multi-purpose hand axes. These finds came from Stone Age cultures dated as far back as 100,000 to two million years ago. The Leakeys unearthed a Proconsul africanus skull, dated to be twenty million years old, on Rusinga Island, in October of 1947. This skull was the first skull of a fossil ape ever to be found and to this day only three of these apes are known. Their next discovery, in 1959, was a 1.75 million-year-old Australopithecus boisei skull. They also found a less robust Homo habilis skull and bones of a hand. After reconstructing the hand, it was proven the hand was capable of precise manipulation. Many more remains were found at this site. In 1965 the husband and wife team uncovered a Homo erectus skull, dated at one million years old. After Mary's husband passed on, she continued her work at Olduvai and Laetoli. It was here at the Laetoli site, that she discovered Homo fossils that were more than 3.75 million-years-old. She also discovered fifteen new species and one new genus. From 1976 to 1981 Mary and her staff worked to uncover the Laetoli hominid footprint trail which was left in volcanic ashes some 3.6 million years ago. The years that followed this discovery were filled with research at Olduvai and Laetoli, the follow-up work to discoveries and preparing publications.

Footprints

In the 1960s Louis became ill and Mary Leakey took over the work at Olduvai Gorge. Their relationship began to deteriorate somewhat at this point, perhaps through professional rivalry. He was absorbed in administrative and fund-raising tasks, and branched out into many related areas, including primate research (with Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall his proteges) and special excavations in Israel and North America. Mary stayed in field work in Africa where she made several dramatic finds and found herself critical of some of Louis' work of the time, calling it not rigorous. In 1976 and 1977, Mary made what she considers 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 fossilized footprints in what was once a wet sandy region probably near a watering hole. Among them were human-like footprints showing a small striding primate that walked on two feet. The footprints seemed to match the fossils found in the same area, belonging to the species Australopithecus afarensis. This made upright walking an older trait for hominids than either brain size expansion or modern tooth structure, and therefore required changes in theories as to why some primates, such as human ancestors, evolved to walk on two feet.

In 1970 Richard married another paleontologist, Meave Epps. He made an important find which validated some of his father's work, and helped reconcile their relationship, which had also been strained. Louis Leakey died in 1972 of a heart attack. Mary, Richard, and Meave continued to work on discovering human origins and untangling the primate family tree. In the 1970s, however, Richard also had health problems. In 1979 he underwent a kidney transplant, with his brother as donor. Through the following decades the Leakey family made significant fossil finds, rethought others, and sometimes disputed claims by other workers, such as Donald Johanson, who felt his fossil Lucy was of the same family as some of the Leakey's finds.