Mary Leakey was a British archaeologist and paleoanthropologist who made significant contributions to the field of human evolution. She was born on February 6, 1913, in London, England, and passed away on December 9, 1996, in Nairobi, Kenya.
Leakey is best known for her discoveries of early hominin fossils in East Africa, particularly in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Alongside her husband Louis Leakey, she conducted numerous excavations in the region, uncovering important fossils that provided crucial insights into human evolution.
One of her most notable discoveries was the skull of a hominin species called Zinjanthropus boisei, later renamed Australopithecus boisei. This finding, made in 1959, provided evidence for the existence of early hominins in East Africa and challenged the prevailing belief that human evolution occurred exclusively in Asia.
Mary Leakey also discovered the Laetoli footprints in Tanzania in 1976. These footprints, preserved in volcanic ash, were made by early hominins around 3.6 million years ago and provided valuable information about their locomotion and bipedalism.
In addition to her fieldwork, Leakey was an accomplished artist and illustrator. She meticulously documented her findings through detailed drawings, which helped to visualize and communicate her discoveries to the scientific community and the public.
Mary Leakey’s contributions to the study of human evolution were recognized with numerous awards and honors throughout her career. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1962 and received the Hubbard Medal from the National Geographic Society in 1965.
Her work continues to inspire and influence researchers in the field of paleoanthropology, and she is remembered as one of the pioneering figures in the study of human origins.
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