MEAVE LEAKEY (KENYA)
Meave Leakey’s contribution to palaeontology has helped greatly in understanding an important aspect of the human story.
Meave has worked at the National Museums of Kenya since 1969. She was head of the division of palaeontology from 1982 until February 2001. She now continues her research as a research affiliate of the National Museums.
Meave Leakey’s early research at Turkana focused on finding fossil remains of the very earliest human ancestors, specimens between eight and four million years old. In 1994, her team found fossil remains of some of the earliest known hominids, about 4.1 million years old, at Kanapoi, southwest of Lake Turkana. These fossils revealed the existence of a previously unknown species, walking upright half a million years earlier than any previously known specimen.
Since 1998, Dr Leakey has been co-leading the expeditions with her daughter Dr Louise Leakey, who continues the family tradition of uncovering human origins and now heads the Koobi Fora Research Project.