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Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (born 19 December 1944 in Nairobi, Kenya), is a Kenyan paleontologist and conservationist. He is second of the three sons of the archaeologists Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey, and is the younger brother of Colin Leakey. is the 353rd day of the year (354th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Nairobi (pronounced IPA: ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. ...
Paleontology, palaeontology or palæontology (from Greek: paleo, ancient; ontos, being; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. ...
Conservationists are those people who tend to more highly rank the wise use of the Earths resources and ecosystems. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Mary Leakey (February 6, 1913 – December 9, 1996) was a British archaeologist, who, along with others, discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island and also a noted robust Australopithecine called Zinjanthropus at Olduvai. ...
Doctor Colin Louis Avern Leakey MA (Cantab. ...
Early life
Earliest years As a small boy Richard lived in Nairobi with his parents, Louis Leakey, curator of the Coryndon Museum, and Mary Leakey, director of the Leakey excavations at Olduvai, and his two brothers, Jonathan and Philip. The Leakey brothers had a very active childhood. All the boys had ponies and belonged to the Langata Pony Club. They participated in jumping and steeplechase competitions but often rode for fun across the plains to the Ngong Hills, chasing and playing games with the animals. Sometimes the whole club were guests at the Leakeys for holidays and vacations. Richard's parents founded the Dalmatian Club of East Africa and won a prize in 1957. Dogs and many other pets shared the Leakey home. The Leakey boys participated in games conducted by both adults and children, in which they tried to imitate early man, catching springhares and small antelope by hand on the Serengeti. They drove lions and jackals from the kill to see if they could do it.[1] Nairobi (pronounced IPA: ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Mary Leakey (February 6, 1913 – December 9, 1996) was a British archaeologist, who, along with others, discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island and also a noted robust Australopithecine called Zinjanthropus at Olduvai. ...
The Olduvai Gorge is a 30 mile long, steep-sided ravine, part of the Great Rift Valley which stretches along eastern Africa. ...
Philip Leakey (born June 21, 1949) is a former member of the Kenyan Parliament. ...
The Ngong Hills are located close to Nairobi in southern Kenya. ...
A zebra and wildebeests during migration The Serengeti is a 60,000 square kilometer savanna which lies over Tanzania. ...
Broken leg When Richard was 11, he fell from his horse, fractured his skull and lay near death. Coincidentally it was this incident that saved his parents' marriage. Louis was seriously considering leaving Mary for his secretary, Rosalie Osborn. As the battle with Mary raged in the household, Richard begged his father from his sickbed not to leave. That was the deciding factor. Louis broke up with Rosalie and the family lived in happy harmony for a few years more.[2]
Duke of York Secondary School The Leakey boys had nannies like their father before them. At age 11 Richard entered the Duke of York Secondary School (later known as Lenana School). The Mau Mau rebellion was just winding down, the settlers believed they had won a victory, and the mood reflected that struggle and that belief.[3] On his first day Richard advocated for racial equality, like his father. Calling him a "lover of niggers", the other students locked him in a wire cage, spat and urinated on him and poked him with sticks. The school administration blamed Richard. After he was later caned for missing chapel, Richard resolved never to be a Christian. Lenana School is a high school in Nairobi, Kenya. ...
The Mau Mau Uprising was an insurgency by Kenyan rebels against the British colonial administration from 1952 to 1960. ...
Circumstances such as these do not favor a successful academic career; in effect, Richard was denied a formal education. He skipped class frequently in favor of a business he started, selling small animals to be photographed by Des Bartlett. In December, 1960, Richard reached his 16th birthday and promptly quit the Duke of York. His parents gave him a choice: return to school or support himself.
Teen-age entrepreneur Richard chose to support himself, borrowed 500 pounds from his parents for a Land Rover, and went into the trapping and skeleton supply business with Kamoya Kimeu. Already a skilled horseman, outdoorsman, rover mechanic, archaeologist and expedition leader, he learned to identify bones, skills which all pointed to a path he did not yet wish to take, simply because his father was on it.[4] Land Rover was the name of one of the first British civilian all-terrain utility vehicles, first produced by Rover in 1947. ...
Kamoya Kimeu, (born c. ...
The bone business turned into a safari business in 1961. In 1962 he obtained a private airplane pilot license and took tours to Olduvai. It was from a casual aerial survey that he noted the potential of Lake Natron's shores for paleontology. He went looking for fossils in a Land Rover, but could find none, until his parents assigned Glynn Isaac to go with him. Louis was so impressed with their finds that he gave them National Geographic money for a month's expedition.[5] They explored in the vicinity of Peninj near the lake, where Richard was in charge of the administrative details. Bored, he returned to Nairobi temporarily, but at that moment, Kimoya Kameu discovered a fossil of Australopithecus boisei. A second expedition left Richard feeling that he was being excluded from the most significant part of the operation, the scientific analysis. Lake Natron, here from 300 km overhead, changes colors with the seasons. ...
Glynn Llywelyn Isaac (1937-1985) was a South African archaeologist who specialised in the very early prehistory of Africa. ...
This article is about the organization. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Paranthropus boisei. ...
Marriage to Margaret Cropper In 1964 on his second Lake Natron expedition, Richard met an archaeologist named Margaret Cropper. When she returned to England, he decided to go to there to study for a degree and become more acquainted with Margaret. He completed his high school requirements in six months; meanwhile Margaret obtained her degree at the University of Edinburgh. He passed the entrance exams for admission to college, but in 1965 he and Margaret decided to get married and return to Kenya. His father offered him a job at Centre for Prehistory and Paleontology. He worked for it, excavating at Lake Baringo and continued his photographic safari business, making enough money to buy a house in Karen, a pleasant suburb of Nairobi. The University of Edinburgh (Scottish Gaelic: ), founded in 1582,[4] is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland. ...
Lake Baringo is, after Lake Turkana, the most northern of the Great Rift Valley lakes of Kenya, with a surface area of about 130 sq km. ...
Karen is a suburb of Nairobi in Kenya, lying south west of the city centre. ...
Paleontology Richard’s career as a palaeoanthropologist did not begin with a dateable event or a sudden decision, as did Louis’; he was with his parents on every excavation, was taught every skill and was given responsible work even as a boy. It is not surprising that his independent decision making led him into conflict with his father, who had always tried to instill in him that very trait. After he gave some fossils to Tanzania and set Margaret to inventory Louis’ collections, Louis suggested he find work elsewhere in 1967.
Richard formed the Kenya Museum Associates with influential Kenyans in that year. Their intent was to 'Kenyanize' and improve the National Museum. They offered the museum 5000 pounds, 1/3 of its yearly budget, if it would place Richard in a responsible position. He was given an observer’s seat on the board of directors. Joel Ojal, the government official in charge of the museum, and a member of the Associates, directed the chairman of the board to start placing Kenyans on it. Currently, (amidst several other projects) Richard Leakey is a visiting professor of Human Evolution and Conservation at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) is a collection of museums and monuments in Kenya, including the Nairobi Museum Galleries, near Uhuru highway in Nairobi, Kenya. ...
The State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNYSB), also known as Stony Brook University (SBU) is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York (on the north side of Long Island, about 55 miles east of Manhattan, New York). ...
The Omo Plans for the museum had not matured when Louis, intentionally or not, found a way to remove his confrontational son from the scene. Louis attended a lunch with Haile Selassie and Jomo Kenyatta. The conversation turned to fossils and Haile wanted to know why none had been found in Ethiopia. Louis developed this inquiry into permission to excavate on the Omo River. Haile Selassie Haile Selassie (Power of Trinity) (July 23, 1892 – August 27, 1975) was the last Emperor (1930–1936; 1941–1974) of Ethiopia, and is a religious symbol in the Rastafarian movement. ...
Jomo Kenyatta (October 20, 1889 – August 22, 1978) served as the first Prime Minister (1963–1964) and President (1964–1978) of Kenya. ...
Omo River empties into Lake Turkana, August 1995 The Omo is an important river of southern Ethiopia. ...
The expedition consisted of three contingents: French, under Camille Arambourg, American, under Clark Howell, and Kenyan, led by Richard. Louis could not go because of his arthritis. Crossing the Omo in 1967, Richard’s contingent was attacked by crocodiles, which destroyed their wooden boat. Expedition members barely escaped with their lives. Richard radioed Louis for a new, aluminum boat, which the National Geographic Society was happy to supply. Camille Arambourg (1885-1970) was a French vertebrate paleontologist. ...
This article is about the organization. ...
On site, Kamoya Kimeu found a Hominid fossil. Richard took it to be Homo erectus, but Louis identified it as Homo sapiens. It was the oldest of the species found at that time, dating to 160,000 ya, and was the first contemporaneous with Homo neanderthalensis. During the identification process, Richard came to feel that the college men were patronizing him.[6] Kamoya Kimeu, (born c. ...
Binomial name (Dubois, 1892) Synonyms †Pithecanthropus erectus †Sinanthropus pekinensis †Javanthropus soloensis †Meganthropus paleojavanicus Homo erectus (Latin: upright man) is an extinct species of the genus Homo. ...
Koobi Fora During the Omo expedition of 1967, Richard visited Nairobi and on the return flight the pilot flew over Lake Rudolph (now Lake Turkana) to avoid a thunderstorm. The map led Richard to expect volcanic rock below him but he saw sediments. Visiting the region with Howell by helicopter, he saw tools and fossils everywhere. In his mind, he was already formulating a new enterprise. View over Lake Turkana Lake Turkana, formerly known as Lake Rudolf, is a lake in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya (although the far northern end of the lake crosses into Ethiopia), which covers a surface area of 6405 km² (2473 mi²), making it the worlds largest permanent desert...
In 1968 Louis and Richard attended a meeting of the Research and Exploration Committee of the National Geographic Society to ask for money for Omo. Catching Louis by surprise, Richard asked the committee to divert the $25,000 intended for Omo to new excavations to be conducted under his leadership at Koobi Fora. Richard won, but chairman Leonard Carmichael told him he'd better find something or never "come begging at our door again." Louis graciously congratulated Richard.
More was yet to come. By now the board of the National Museum was packed with Kenyan supporters of Richard. They appointed him administrative director. The curator, Robert Carcasson, resigned in protest and Richard was left with the museum at his command, which he, like Louis before him, used as a base of operations.[7] Although there was friendly rivalry and contention between Louis and Richard, relations remained good. Each took over for the other when one was busy with something else or incapacitated, and Richard continued to inform his father immediately of Hominid finds. The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) is a collection of museums and monuments in Kenya, including the Nairobi Museum Galleries, near Uhuru highway in Nairobi, Kenya. ...
In the first expedition to Allia Bay on Lake Turkana, where the Koobi Fora camp came to be located, Richard hired only graduate students in anthropology, as he did not want any questioning of his leadership. The students were John Harris and Bernard Wood. Also present was a team of Africans under Kamoya, a geochemist: Paul Abel, and a photographer: Bob Campbell. Margaret was the archaeologist. Richard took to smoking a pipe to enhance his status, as did Kamoya. There were no leadership problems. In contrast to his father, Richard ran a disciplined and tidy camp, although in order to find fossils, he did push the expedition harder than it wished. John Harris may refer to: // John Harris (New York) (1760–1824), United States Congressman from New York John S. Harris (1825–1906), United States Senator from Louisiana John T. Harris (1823–1899), United States Representative and lawyer from Virginia John Harris (politician), member of the Alaska House of Representatives. ...
Robert Campbell, Bobby Campbell or Bob Campbell may refer to: In politics: Robert Campbell (politician) (1808-1870), a New York politician. ...
In 1969 the discovery of a cranium of Paranthropus boisei caused great excitement. A Homo habilis skull (KNM ER 1470) and a Homo erectus skull (KNM ER 3733), discovered in 1972 and 1975, respectively, were among the most significant finds of Leakey's earlier expeditions. In 1978 an intact cranium of Homo erectus (KNM ER 3883) was discovered. Binomial name †Paranthropus boisei (Mary Leakey, 1959) Paranthropus boisei (originally called Zinjanthropus boisei and then Australopithecus boisei until recently) was an early hominid and described as the largest of the Paranthropus species. ...
Binomial name Leakey et al, 1964 Homo habilis (pronounced ) (handy man, skillful person) is a species of the genus Homo, which lived from approximately 2. ...
Binomial name †Homo rudolfensis Alexeev, 1986 Homo rudolfensis is a fossil hominin species proposed in 1986 by V. P. Alexeev for the specimen Skull 1470 (KNM ER 1470). ...
Binomial name (Dubois, 1892) Synonyms †Pithecanthropus erectus †Sinanthropus pekinensis †Javanthropus soloensis †Meganthropus paleojavanicus Homo erectus (Latin: upright man) is an extinct species of the genus Homo. ...
Dr. Benard Wood of George Washington University (U.S.A.) considers KNM ER 3733 as a fossilized skull of the species Homo ergaster, although some paleoanthropologists consider it to be Homo erectus. ...
Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Richard's wife Meave Leakey and daughter Louise Leakey still continue paleontological research in Northern Kenya. Meave (Epps) Leakey (born 1942 in London, England) is together with her husband Richard Leakey one of the most renowned British paleontologists. ...
Louise Leakey (1972-) is a paleontologist from Kenya. ...
West Turkana Turkana Boy, discovered by Kamoya Kimeu, a member of Leakeys' team in 1984 - was the nearly complete skeleton of a 12-year-old (or possibly 9-year-old) Homo erectus who died 1.6 million years ago. Leakey and Roger Lewin describe the experience of this find and their interpretation of it, in their book Origins Reconsidered (1992). Shortly after the discovery of Turkana Boy, Leakey and his team made the discovery of a skull of a new species, Australopithecus aethiopicus (WT 17000). Turkana Boy or Nariokotome Boy is the designation given to fossil KNM-WT 15000[1], a nearly complete skeleton of an 11- or 12-year-old hominid boy who died 1. ...
Kamoya Kimeu, (born c. ...
Roger Lewin, Ph. ...
Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ...
Binomial name †Paranthropus aethiopicus (Olson, 1985) Paranthropus aethiopicus is an extinct species of Paranthropus. ...
Conservation In 1989 Richard Leakey was appointed the head of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Department (WMCD) by President Daniel Arap Moi in response to the international outcry over the poaching of elephants and the impact it was having on the wildlife of Kenya. The department was replaced by Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) in 1990, and Leakey became its first chairman. With characteristically bold steps Leakey created special, well-armed anti-poaching units that were authorized to shoot poachers on sight. The poaching menace was dramatically reduced. Impressed by Leakey's transformation of the KWS, the World Bank approved grants worth $140 million. Richard Leakey, President Arap Moi and the WMCD made the international news headlines when a stock pile of 12 tons of ivory was burned in 1989. Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ...
Daniel Toroitich arap Moi (born September 2, 1924) was the President of Kenya from 1978 until 2002. ...
Genera and Species Loxodonta Loxodonta cyclotis Loxodonta africana Elephas Elephas maximus Elephas antiquus †Elephas beyeri †Elephas celebensis †Elephas cypriotes †Elephas ekorensis †Elephas falconeri †Elephas iolensis †Elephas planifrons †Elephas platycephalus †Elephas recki †Stegodon †Mammuthus †Elephantidae (the elephants) is a family of pachyderm, and the only remaining family in the order Proboscidea...
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) was established in 1990. ...
The World Bank logo The World Bank (the Bank) is a part of the World Bank Group (WBG), is a bank that makes loans to developing countries for development programs with the stated goal of reducing poverty. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Richard Leakey's confrontational approach to the issue of human-wildlife conflict in national parks did not win him friends. His view was that parks were self-contained ecosystems that had to be fenced in and the humans kept out. Leakey's bold and incorruptible nature also offended many local politicians. This article is about national parks. ...
In 1993 Richard Leakey lost both his legs when his propeller-driven plane crashed. Sabotage was suspected but never proved. In a few months Richard Leakey was walking again on artificial limbs. Around this time the Kenyan government announced that a secret probe had found evidence of corruption and mismanagement in the KWS. An annoyed Leakey resigned publicly in a press conference in January 1994. He was replaced by David Western as the head of the KWS. Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ...
A United States soldier demonstrates table football with two transradial prosthetic limbs. ...
Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ...
Richard Leakey wrote about his experiences at the KWS in his book Wildlife Wars: My Battle to Save Kenya's Elephants (2001). Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...
Leakey is currently a visiting fellow at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNYSB), also known as Stony Brook University (SBU) is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York (on the north side of Long Island, about 55 miles east of Manhattan, New York). ...
In 2004, Richard Leakey founded and chaired WildlifeDirect, a Kenya-based charitable organization. The charity was established to provide support to conservationists in Africa directly on the ground via the use of blogs. This enables individuals anywhere to play a direct and interactive role in the survival of some of the world’s most precious species. The organisation played a significant role in the saving of Congo's mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park in January 2007 after a rebel uprising threatened to eliminate the highly vulnerable population. WildlifeDirect is a US and UK registered charitable organization founded and chaired by African conservationist Richard Leakey, who is credited with putting an end to the elephant slaughter in Kenya in the 1980s. ...
It has been suggested that Online diary be merged into this article or section. ...
Politics In May 1995 Richard Leakey joined a group of Kenyan intellectuals in launching a new political party - the Safina Party, which in Swahili means "Noah's Ark." "If KANU and Mr. Moi will do something about the deterioration of public life, corruption and mismanagement, I'd be happy to fight alongside them. If they won't, I want somebody else to do it," announced Richard Leakey. The Safina party was routinely harassed and even its application to become an official political party was not approved until 1997. Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ...
Political Parties redirects here. ...
The Safina (Swahili for Noahs Ark) is a political party in Kenya. ...
This article is about the vessel described in the Hebrew scriptures. ...
The Kenya African National Union, better known as KANU, ruled Kenya for nearly 40 years after its independence from British colonial rule in 1963, until its electoral loss at the end of 2002. ...
For the band, see 1997 (band). ...
In 1999, Moi had to appoint Richard Leakey as Cabinet Secretary and overall head of the civil service at the insistence of international donor institutions as a pre-condition for the resumption of donor funds. Leakey's second stint in the civil service lasted until 2001 when he was forced to resign again. This article is about the year. ...
The Roman civil service in action. ...
Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...
In April 2007 he was appointed interim chairman of Transparency International Kenya branch [8]. Transparency International (TI) is an international organisation addressing corruption, including, but not limited to, political corruption. ...
Bibliography Leakey's early published works include: Origins and The People of the Lake (both with Roger Lewin as co-author); The Illustrated Origin of Species; and The Making of Mankind (1981). Leakey had an open scientific rivalry with Donald Johanson during the 80's. Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist known for his discovery of the skeleton of a 3. ...
- Origins (with Roger Lewin) (Dutton, 1977)
- People of the Lake: Mankind and its Beginnings (with Roger Lewin)(Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1978)
- Making of Mankind (Penguin USA, 1981)
- One Life: An Autobiography (Salem House, 1983)
- Origins Reconsidered (with Roger Lewin)(Doubleday, 1992)
- The Origin of Humankind (Perseus Books Group, 1994)
- The Sixth Extinction (with Roger Lewin) (Bantam Dell Pub Group, 1995)
- Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures (with Virginia Morell) (St. Martin's Press, 2001)
Roger Lewin, Ph. ...
References - ^ Virginia Morell, Ancestral Passions, Copyright 1995, Chapter 18, "Richard Makes his Move".
- ^ Morell, Chapter 17, "Chimpanzees and Other Loves."
- ^ Within a few years the settlers would be stampeding out of the country at the political victory of Jomo Kenyatta and the independence of Kenya.
- ^ Richard E. Leakey, The Making of Mankind, Copyright 1981, Chapter 1 Page 1. He says he wished to be "free" of his parents' world, a sentiment both Louis and Mary must have understood very well, even though they opposed his freedom.
- ^ Morell, Chapter 18, "Richard Makes his Move." Besides Richard and Glynn, the roster included Barbara Isaac, Philip Leakey, Hugo van Lawick and six of Mary's African assistants.
- ^ This section is based on Morell Chapter 20, “To the Omo.”
- ^ Morell, Chapter 21, "Breaking Away."
- ^ The Standard, April 4, 2007: Leakey takes over at TI
Jomo Kenyatta (October 20, 1889 – August 22, 1978) served as the first Prime Minister (1963–1964) and President (1964–1978) of Kenya. ...
Philip Leakey (born June 21, 1949) is a former member of the Kenyan Parliament. ...
== Famous photographers: Hugo van Lawick == In memoriam Made popular the study of Primate research with his fabulous still photographs and his films. ...
See also Leakey may refer to: Members of the Kenyan-British family of prominent anthropologists: Louis Leakey, anthropologist and archaeologist Mary Leakey, anthropologist and archaeologist Richard Leakey, paleontologist, archaeologist and conservationist Rea Leakey, British tank commander, during World War II Leakey, a city in Real County, Texas Nigel Leakey, a Kenyan sergeant...
List of fossil sites: // ^ http://www. ...
The following charts give a brief overview of several notable fossil finds relating to human evolution. ...
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