Mary Leakey

Common card · No. 308920

Mary Douglas Leakey (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British archaeologist and a founding figure in the field of modern paleoanthropology. Her career in African archaeology spanned over 60 years, from the first survey of Olduvai Gorge in 1934 until her death in 1996, having retired from fieldwork in 1984 after a blood clot left her blind in her left eye. She is credited with the classification of fifteen new animal species, one animal genus, and a series of major discoveries relating to early human evolution in East Africa, specifically the Great Rift Valley. Among these are the type specimens of Proconsul africanus (1948), Paranthropus boisei (1959), Homo habilis (1961), the Laetoli footprints (1976), and the modern typology of stone tools into industries of the Paleolithic. Leakey collaborated with her husband and fellow paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey (1903–1972) for most of her career. He received most–at times all–of the academic credit and publicity associated...

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