The Leakeys and “the Leakey’s Angels”
- López, B. & Rueda, A.
- 17 dic 2019
- 2 Min. de lectura
Mary Douglas Nicol Leaky:
British paleoanthropologist.
Discovered the 1,750,000 year-old skull of Australopithecus boisei in 1959 in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
In Tanzania, in Laetoli she discovered the 3,750,000-year-old jaws and teeth of a Homo species in 1975.
In Tanzania, in Laetoli also, she found the 3,600,000-year-old fossilized footprints of a bipedal hominid in 1979.
Meave Leaky:
Mary Leaky’s second son’s wife
Meave and her team described the species Australopithecus anamensis in 1995.
In 2001, they described the species Kanyanthropus.
Leakey's angels or “Trimates”
Dian Fossey:
A primatologist who dedicated her life to studying and protecting the mountain gorillas in the Virunga Mountain region in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa.
She published “Gorillas in the Mist”, a book in which she explains her efforts to ensure the future of the rainforest and the mountain gorillas. Also, candid photographs of the endangered gorillas are in the book. Her personal experience together with the scientific research is told in the book.
She fought against furtive gorilla hunters and was killed for it.
Biruté Mary F. Galdikas:
She devoted her life to study the orangutans.
She is well known in the field of primatology, Galdikas is recognized as a leading authority on orangutans.
She is an expert orangutan behaviour
Galdikas is currently a professor at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, and Professor Extraordinaire at Universitas Nasional in Jakarta, Indonesia.
She is also president of the Orangutan Foundation International in Los Angeles, California.
Jane Goodall:
She focused her research in chimpanzees.
She is considered the major expert in chimpanzees.
She studied the chimpanzees in Tanzania.
In 1977 she created the Jane Goodall Institute which is focused in protecting chimpanzees and their habitats.
She has published several books and children books.
We think is important to remark these three primatologists because the did no only contribute to primatology, but they also focused their life in protecting the wildlife of the region they study. Also, we think that the contributions they made to the primatologist field are of great relevance to the human anthropology field as they can be used to compare human morphology and behaviour with other primate behaviour.
Comments