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3.5 process secondary information and use available evidence to assess the contribution of one of the following to our increased understanding of human evolution: the Leakey family Johanson Broom Tobias Dart Goodall

process secondary information and use available evidence to assess the contribution of one of the following to our increased understanding of human evolution:

  • the Leakey family
  • Johanson
  • Broom
  • Tobias
  • Dart
  • Goodall

The Leakey family is summarised below as a model.

The Leakey family
No other family has had such an influence on a field of scientific study as the Leakey family. Louis his second wife Mary, their son Richard and Richard’s second wife Maeve have all made outstanding contributions to the study of the evolution of humans. More recently the next generation in the form of Louise Leakey (the daughter of Richard and Maeve) has begun to work in the field of anthropology. The Leakey family finds include Proconsul, Australopithecus boisei, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Australopithecus anamensis and Australopithecus aethiopicus.

The table below summarises their contribution.

Year Event
1933
Louis and Mary meet.
1959

Mary finds Zinjanthropus (Australopithecus boisei)
1964

Louis finds the tool-maker, Homo habilis
1972

Richard finds a 1.8 million year old Homo habilis skull
1978

Mary announces Laetoli footprints (Austraopithecus afarensis)
1984

Kamoya Kimeu, a member of Richard’s team finds Turkana boy (Homo ergaster)
1985

Richard discovers Black skull (Australopithecus [or Paranthropus] aethiopicus)at Lake Turkana with Alan Walker
1989

Richard enters wildlife conservation
1995

Maeve Leakey announces new species Australopithecus anamensis
1999

Maeve Leakey discovers a new genus Kenyanthropus platyops

Louis Leakey was also known for encouraging the research into primates by Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galika and in changing the view that hominids evolved in Asia.