Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey was born in London on February 6th, 1913 and is the Paleontologist. At the age of 83, Mary Leakey biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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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. During her career, Leakey discovered fifteen new species of animal.
She also brought about the naming of a new genus. In 1972, after the death of her husband, Leakey became director of excavations at Olduvai.
She maintained the Leakey family tradition of palaeoanthropology by training her son, Richard, in the field.
Awards and honours
- Honorary D.Sc., University of the Witwatersrand, 1968
- Honorary DSSc, Yale, 1976
- Honorary D.Sc., University of Michigan, 1980
- Honorary D.Litt., Oxford, 1981
- Gold Medal of Society of Woman Geographers, 1975
- Linnaeus Gold Medal of the Royal Swedish Academy, 1978
- The Elizabeth Blackwell Award, 1980
- The Hubbard Medal of National Geographic Society, 1962 – jointly with Louis Leakey
- The Prestwich Medal, Geological Society of London, 1969 – jointly with Louis Leakey