Mary Leakey

PALEOANTHROPOLOGIST who helped prove that humanity originated in Africa
Worked as a scientific illustrator on an archaeological dig when she was 17 years old
Hunted for fossils in Tanzania for almost fifty years with her husband, Louis Leakey (who hired Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas, and Jane Goodall for their groundbreaking primate studies)
Among her many historic finds were an 18-million-year-old partial skull of the FIRST known primate from the Miocene Era, and a 3.6-million-year-old trail of human footprints -- the FIRST archaeological evidence of humanity's ancestors walking upright
Her discoveries were critical in filling in gaps in the evolutionary record
Encouraged and mentored upcoming paleoanthropologists
Known as the Grand Dame of Archaeology

Photo from The Leakey Foundation archive, via leakeyfoundation.org

Bibliography: Bower, John R. F. “Leakey, Mary." The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Vol, 3, Oxford University Press, 2008, 84-85.
Doyle, Caitlin. Girls Can Do Anything: From Sports to Innovation, Art to Politics, Meet Over 200 Women Who Got There First. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2016. Print.
Edwards, Sue Bradford. Women in Science. Minneapolis: Abdo Publishing, 2017. Print.

Support these organizations dedicated to preserving her story and mission:

Turkana Basin Institute
The Leakey Foundation

Books by this Awesome Woman

Africa's Vanishing Art: The Rock Paintings of Tanzania

Biographies for Kids and Young Adults

(picture book)

Mary Leakey: Archaeologist Who Really Dug Her Work

Mary Leakey: In Search of Human Beginnings

The Leakeys: Uncovering the Origins of Humankind

Research

Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings

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