Louis Leakey

Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey ( born August 7, 1903 in the Kabete Mission in Nairobi / Kenya, † October 1, 1972 in London ) was a British -born paleoanthropologist.

He was married to Mary Leakey; their sons Richard and Jonathan were also known paleoanthropologists. 1960 Louis Leakey Jane Goodall motivated to explore the behavior of wild great apes ( chimpanzees) - as well as Dian Fossey ( gorillas ) and Birutė Galdikas ( orangutans ).

Career

Louis Leakey grew up as a child of English missionaries in two languages ​​( English and Kikuyu ) among members of the Kikuyu tribe and was initiated as a 13 -year-old member of the Kikuyu tribe.

Even as a child his interest in the ancestors of modern man was awakened, after Stone Age tools have been found. In 1922 he entered the University of Cambridge to study and helped with soon to organize a paleontological expedition to Africa. In 1926 he completed his studies at Cambridge in the subjects of anthropology and archeology from, led several excavations in Africa and was awarded for his research in 1930 finally the doctorate. His first major find was the jaw of a proconsul.

Research priorities

As early as 1930 he found bones, of which he was convinced that they were to be counted among the hitherto oldest known human ancestors. However, he no longer found in the next year the locality, so that a planned review of the find circumstances was prevented by a colleague.

1928 married Louis Leakey Frida Avern, one living in Africa Englishwoman. They had two children together, Priscilla Muthoni Leakey ( born 1931 ) and Colin Louis Avern Leakey ( born 1933 ). The marriage was in 1936 but divorced because he lived since 1933 with the scientific illustrator Mary Nicol, whom he married immediately after divorce. The scandal of these partners change and the unexplained circumstances of his bone finds of 1930 undermined his hitherto promising career in Cambridge. Without steady income he hit in England with lectures and essays by, but returned in 1937 to Africa to make a large-scale ethnographic study of the culture of the Kikuyu tribe.

1941 Leakey was initially part-time and unpaid employees in later Kenya National Museum (now the Nairobi National Museum ), and in 1945 he received a low-paying job as a curator, but was able to continue his paleontological and archaeological work in Kenya. In 1947 he organized the First Pan-African Congress on Prehistory of the continent, contributed considerably to gradually restore his tarnished reputation specialist studies.

Together with his wife Mary, he organized excavations at various locations in Africa, but especially in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania today. After Mary had in 1959 a fossil is found, the Zinjanthropus boisei (now Paranthropus boisei ) was named and was issued by Louis Leakey in spite of its great resemblance to Australopithecus ancestor of man, his international fame grew from year to year. The highlight of his career was finally reached in 1964, when another Fund and far more plausible human ancestor by him (together with Phillip Tobias and John Napier ) was given the name Homo habilis. In 1961 had joined his spectacular finds also Kenyapithecus africanus (later renamed Equatorius africanus ), whose genus Kenyapithecus wickeri together with the new type Kenyapithecus was introduced already in 1962 by Leakey. Leakey has contributed by his finds a significant contribution to support the idea of Darwin that humanity comes from Africa.

Louis Leakey was convinced that the roots of the genus Homo with evidence of stone tools to be brought into connection and so coined the still widespread notion that the use of tools made ​​the pre-human for real people. Even the far later proven by Jane Goodall tool use among chimpanzees was little change at this popular notion. In research circles but today discussed seriously about whether Homo habilis really the genus Homo should be attributed.

In addition to searching for facing Schenk bones Leakey was also interested in African archaeological sites and amassed a large collection of Stone Age obsidian tools. He also discovered some outstanding prehistoric wall paintings.

Louis Leakey died in 1972 on his way to a lecture in London of a heart attack. Although many interpretations of his findings were quite controversial, he was recognized by his peers as one of the greats in the field of paleoanthropology and respected.

The lunar crater Leakey is named after him.

Works

• By the Evidence: Memoirs, 1932-1951. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York 1974, ISBN 0-15-149454-1 ( paperback edition 1976, ISBN 0-15-615000- X)
• The Progress and Evolution of Man in Africa. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1966 ( reprint of the edition of 1961)
• Adam's Ancestors: The Evolution of Man and His Culture. Harper Row ( Harper Torch Book ed.), New York 1960