Richard Leakey
Richard Erskine Leakey ( born December 19, 1944 in Nairobi ) is, together with his wife Meave Leakey become a global family of important paleoanthropologists. He found at Lake Turkana, among others fossil skull of Homo habilis and Homo erectus. 1989-1995 and 1998-2004 he was head of the Kenya Wildlife Service. In 1995 he was involved in the founding of the opposition party Safina ( Swahili for " ark " ) for which he entered into the Kenyan Parliament in 1997.
Career
Richard Leakey is the second son of Louis and Mary Leakey; his older brother Jonathan Leakey in 1964 found the first fossilized remains of Homo habilis. In his youth, Richard Leakey wanted to be a paleoanthropologist in any case. He did not finish high school, but left it at the age of 16 years and devoted himself to organizing Safari trips. In this work he discovered a fossil site, to which he led an expedition in 1964. Through this work suggested that Richard Leakey in 1965 went back to England to resume his studies. After six months he returned, however, again back to Kenya to devote himself to the safari business.
Supported by the National Geographic Society, he led from 1969 to 1975 excavations at Lake Turkana, where he in 1972 a nearly two million year old Homo habilis discovered. He had recognized in 1967 at a random flyover as " fossils suspicious" to the references. In 1984, he also dug from parts of a Homo erectus, which was later referred to as Turkana Boy. His discoveries gave him in the U.S. at times so great a popularity that a photo of him in 1977 as a title image appeared on an edition of Time magazine.
From 1974 to 1989, Richard Leakey Director of the National Museum of Kenya and ultimate boss of all archaeological sites in the country. 1969 an incurable kidney disease was diagnosed, for which he was treated in the summer of 1979 in England with dialysis at him though. His brother Philip Leakey donated a kidney in November 1979.
1989 ended its paleoanthropological work after he had been appointed by President Daniel arap Moi appointed head of the Kenya Wildlife Service; its restructuring measures led quickly to a substantial decline in poaching in the national parks. In a plane crash Richard Leakey lost both legs below the knee in 1993, which is why he resigned from this post in 1994. In 1995, he actively participated in the creation of an opposition party, the Safina ( Swahili for " ark " ) and was active against the widespread corruption in Kenya, making it the victim of politically motivated accusations of alleged mismanagement, racism and colonialism in the following years. He was elected Secretary General of the opposition party Safina and 1997 in the Kenyan Parliament, after which he was in 1998 again appointed chief of the Wildlife Service in 2004 and again forced to resign.
Richard Leakey has been repeatedly threatened with death and monitored by the government politically, but is still regarded as one of the most respected figures in the country and as an authority in the field of environmental protection and nature conservation. Since his forced retirement from official policy, he has resorted to a kind of guerrilla tactics: he makes speeches to rouse the people politically, and then settles back to a safe place in order to avoid too much trouble.
In 2007 he initiated the Turkana Basin Institute, which - in collaboration with Stony Brook University and the National Museums of Kenya - logistical support research projects and the local population at Lake Turkana discovered in this region prehistoric discoveries intended to bring.
Before his wedding with Meave Leakey in 1970 to 1968 was married to his first wife Margaret. With Meave he has daughters Louise Leakey (born 1972 ) and Samira Leakey ( b. 1974 ).
Writings
- With Virginia Morell: Wildlife. A life for the elephants. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-596-16052-9
- Roger Lewin: The sixth extinction: biodiversity and the future of humanity. S. Fischer Verlag, 1996, ISBN 3-10-042703-3 ( original title: The Sixth Extinction )
- The origin of humankind. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994
- One Life: An Autobiography. Salem House Publishers, 1984 ISBN 0881620556
- Roger Lewin: People of the Lake: Recent discoveries about the history of mankind d. Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-548-32051-1 (Original Title: People of The Lake )
- The search for the man: What we were, what we are. Umschau -Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-524-69028-9 ( Original title: The Making of Mankind )
- Roger Lewin: As man to man was: New insights into the origin and future of man. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1978, ISBN 3-455-08931-3 ( original title: Origins )