leakey

noun

1. Louis Seymour Baz·ett [baz-it] /ˈbæz ɪt/, 1903–72, British archaeologist and anthropologist.
2. Mary (Douglas),1913–96, British archaeologist (wife of Louis Leakey).
3. their sonRichard (Erskine Frere) [freer] /frɪər/, born 1944, Kenyan paleontologist and animal-rights activist.

noun

1. Louis Seymour Bazett (ˈbæzɪt). 1903–72, British anthropologist and archaeologist, settled in Kenya. He discovered fossil remains of manlike apes in E Africa
2. his son Richard . born 1944, Kenyan anthropologist, who discovered the remains of primitive man over 2 million years old in E Africa

1. Family of British scientists. Louis S(eymour) B(azett) (1903-1972) is known for fossil discoveries made in close collaboration with his wife Mary (1913-1996) of early humans. In 1959, while working in Tanzania, Africa, Mary Leakey uncovered skull and teeth fragments of a species the Leakeys named Zinjanthropus, since renamed Australopithecus boisei. The next year the Leakeys discovered remains of a larger-brained species, Homo habilis. Their discoveries provided powerful evidence that human ancestors were of greater age than was previously thought, and that they had evolved in Africa rather than in Asia. Their son Richard (born 1944) and his wife Meave (born 1942) have continued the family’s research and discoveries. In 2001 Meave Leakey discovered a skull belonging to an entirely new genus, called Kenyanthropus platyops and believed to be 3.5 million years old.

A family of anthropologists whose work at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and elsewhere revealed that humans probably first evolved in Africa. Louis Leakey and his wife, Mary, discovered fossils of human ancestors dating back over 3.75 million years. Their son, Richard Leakey, continued to make discoveries in Kenya and Tanzania.