Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey (born February 6, 1913 – died December 9, 1996) was a British physical anthropologist and a wife of Louis Leakey, famous for her discovery of the Homo habilis and the Laetoli footprints.
Life
Mary Leakey (born Mary Nicol) was born into the family of Erskine Nicol, a landscape artist of Scottish descent and Cecilia Frere. Due to the nature of her father’s job, Nicol family had to frequently move from place to place, living in France, Italy, and England. While living in Dordogne, France, Mary met Abbe Lemozi, who led archeological excavations in nearby Cabrerets. It was here that her interest in prehistory was sparked.
After the death of her father in 1926, Mary’s mother placed her in a Catholic convent, but due to her rebellious nature she was repeatedly expelled. Instead, Mary started attending lectures for archaeology and geology at the University of London, which was rather unusual for a woman at the time. Her artistic abilities helped her in her plan. She entered the field as an illustrator for Dr. Gertrude Caton-Thompson's book, The Desert Fayoum, and through Dr. Caton-Thompson met Louis Leakey. She showed him her illustrations and he arranged for her to illustrate his book, Adam's Ancestors. They fell in love and were married in 1936. They had three sons: Jonathan in 1940, Richard in 1944, and Philip in 1948.
Her first important excavation was at Hembury Fort in Devon, England in May of 1934. Later that year, Mary performed second excavation at Jaywick Sands and published her first scientific paper. Together with Louis she moved to East Africa in 1935 where, now as a couple, they jointly started excavations. From 1935 to 1959 Leakeys dug at Olduvai Gorge in the Serengeti plains of Northern Tanzania, yielded many stone tools from primitive stone-chopping instruments to multi-purpose hand axes. These finds came from Stone Age cultures dated as far back as 100,000 to two million years ago.
One of the first big discoveries the Leakeys unearthed was a Proconsul africanus skull, dated to be twenty million years old, on Rusinga Island, in October of 1947. This skull was the first skull of a fossil ape ever to be found and to this day only three of these apes are known. Their next big discovery, in 1959, was a 1.75 million-year-old skull of Zinjanthropus (later named Australopithecus boisei), after which Leakeys became world famous. They also found a less robust skull and bones of a hand of a species that will later be known as Homo habilis. After reconstructing the hand, it was proven the hand was capable of precise manipulation.
Mary and Louis were jointly awarded the Stopes Medal from the Geological Association in 1955. In March of 1962, the Leakey family took a trip to the United States to receive the Gold Hubbard Medal, the highest honor the National Geographic Society offers. In 1969, she earned her first Honorary Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. That was her only formal degree she ever received.
Louis died on October 1, 1972 of a heart attack. After that Mary continued her work at Olduvai and Laetoli. It was here at the Laetoli site, that she made her greatest discovery – she uncovered the Laetoli hominid footprint trail, which was left in volcanic ashes some 3.6 million years ago. The years that followed this discovery were filled with research at Olduvai and Laetoli, the follow-up work to discoveries and preparing publications.
Mary Leakey retired from her work in 1983, and died on Monday, December 9, 1996 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Work
Mary Leakey’s biggest discovery were footprints discovered at the Laetoli site (Site G). The site is located 45 km south of Olduvai.
The site is Pliocene, dated by the K/Ar method to 3.7 million years ago. A line of hominid footprints, discovered in 1976-77 by Mary, Richard Hay and their team, is preserved in powdery ash from an eruption of the 20 km distant Sadiman volcano. Soft rain cemented the ash-layer (15 cm thick) to tufa without destroying the prints. In time, they were covered by other ash deposits. The hominid prints were produced by three individuals, one walking in the footprints of the other, making the original tracks difficult to discover. As the tracks lead in the same direction, they might have been produced by a group- but there is nothing else to support the common reconstruction of a nuclear family visiting the waterhole together.
| hominid 1 | hominid 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| length of footprint | 21.5 cm | 18.5 cm |
| width of footprint | 10 cm | 8.8 cm |
| length of pace | 47.2 cm | 28.7 cm |
| reconstructed body-size | 1.34-1.56 m | 1.15-1.34 m |
The footprints demonstrate that the hominids walked upright habitually, as there are no knuckle-impressions. The feet do not have the mobile big toe of apes; instead, they have an arch (the bending of the sole of the foot) typical of modern humans. They seem to have moved in a leisurely stroll.
In addition to footprints, Mary’s team found the remains of 13 hominids, mainly mandibles and teeth. They show similarities to the female skeleton Lucy from Hadar, Ethiopia. Most scholars classify them as Australopithecus afarensis, but some stress the greater similarity to Homo genus. In any case, the discovery caused serious debate among scientists, requiring them to change many theories of why human ancestors evolved to walk on two feet.
Legacy
Work of Mary Leakey, her husband and a son inspired new generations of archeologists who continued in their steps.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Morell Virginia. 1995. Ancestral passions: the Leakey family and the quest for humankind's beginnings. New York: Simon & Schuster.
- Footprints From the Past - Pictures of Australopithecus afarensis, Zinjantrophus, and many others
- Johnson, Donald C. 1999. The Leakey family. Time magazine, March 29
- Williams, Barbara. 1981. Breakthrough: Women in Anthropology. New York: Walker Publishing Company
Bibliography
- Leakey, Mary D. 1979. Olduvai Gorge: My Search for Early Man. London: Collins
- Leakey, Mary D. 1979. 3-6 Million Years Old: Footprints in the Ashes of Time. National Geographic 155(4): 446-457.
- Leakey, Mary D. 1984. Disclosing the past. New York: Doubleday
- Leakey, Mary D. & Harris, J. M. (eds.). 1987. Laetoli: A Pliocene site in Northern Tanzania. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0198544413.
- Leakey, Mary D. & Hay, Richard L. 1982. Fossil footprints of Laetoli. Scientific American, 50-57.
External links
- Olduval Gorge Description of archeological site in Tanzania
- Hominid fossils List and description of hominid fossils
- Hominid species List and description of hominid species
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
