Wednesday 6 February 2013

Mary Leakey: 100th birthday of Proconsul skull’s discoverer


British archaeologist and anthropologist Mary Leakey, who discovered the first fossilised skull of Proconsul, is being honoured by search engine giant Google with a doodle on her 100th birthday.

Proconsul was an extinct ape believed to be humans’ ancestors by some scientists.

Leakey, born on February 6, 1913, also discovered the Laetoli footprints and the skull of Zinjanthropus (a genus of extinct hominins).

She died in 1996 at the age of 83.

She wrote a number of books, including Excavations at Njoro River Cave; Olduvai Gorge: Excavations in Beds I and II; Olduvai Gorge: My Search for Early Man; and Africa's Vanishing Art: The Rock Paintings of Tanzania.

No comments:

Post a Comment