MARY DOUGLAS LEAKEY Biography - Famous Scientists

 
 

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MARY DOUGLAS LEAKEY

Name: Mary Leakey                                                                   
Born: 6 February 1913                                                               
Died: 9 December 1996                                                               
                                                                                   
Mary Leakey (February 6, 1913 - December 9, 1996) was a British archaeologist       
and anthropologist, who discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga       
Island and also a noted robust Australopithecine called Zinjanthropus at Olduvai.   
For much of her career she worked together with her husband, Louis Leakey, in       
Olduvai Gorge, uncovering the tools and fossils of ancient hominines. She           
developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. She also       
discovered the Laetoli footprints. In 1960 she became director of excavation at     
Olduvai and subsequently took it over, building her own staff. After the death     
of her husband she became a leading palaeoanthropologist, helping to establish     
the Leakey tradition by training her son, Richard, in the field.