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The year 2003 marks an
important milestone in the history of humankind’s
quest to understand its origins. One hundred years
ago Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey was born near
Nairobi, Kenya, to missionary parents. From the very
start Louis felt that our species arose in Africa, a
concept we now take for granted. Through his
tireless exploration and research, and that of his
wife, Mary, son Richard, daughter-in-law Meave, and
granddaughter Louise, have unearthed the secrets of
our very beginnings and shared these discoveries
with an ever-interested world.
Louis and Mary Leakey made Olduvai Gorge, located
within what is now the famous Serengeti Park in
Tanzania, their domain. Since the early 1930s the
husband and wife team had scoured the exposures
there, determined that eventually evidence for our
African genesis would be discovered. For decades
they uncovered a plethora of mammal fossils; also
many stone tools, evidence that an individuals with
some degree of intelligence once inhabited the area,
but never a significant hominid fossil.
One day in 1959 their luck changed.
It was a fragment of bone that caught Mary’s eye,
and crouched down in further investigation, after a
bit of brushing, she discovered some very
hominid-looking teeth with the bone. Excavations
ensued, uncovering hundreds of skull fragments which,
when reconstructed, would prove without doubt the
existence of early hominids in East Africa. Classified
Australopithecus boisei, this fossil was knows
to Louis and Mary as “Dear Boy.” It seems that
finding the first hominid was all it took: two years
after the discovery of boisei, Louis’ son
Jonathan found a second type of hominid,
larger-brained and less robust than the first. Louis
believed he had found the makers of Olduvai’s stone
tools and named this individual Homo habilis,
meaning “man with skill.” Louis’ steadfast
conviction was finally vindicated. Our own genus,
Homo, had its roots in Africa.
These fossils were the first in a long and
continually emerging series of spectacular
paleoanthropological and archaeological discoveries
in East Africa, spanning six decades and three
generations of the Leakey family. Mary Leakey
continued to work at Olduvai, while his son Richard
and his wife Meave started illustrious careers at
their own location, Koobi Fora, located in Northern
Kenya in the deposits surrounding Lake Turkana. Now
their daughter Louise, having recently earned her
PhD, has assumed her place in the family business,
and represents a new generation of Leakey
exploration. |
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