Richard Erskine Leakey, the grandson of English missionaries, was born in Nairobi, Kenya.
His parents, Louis and Mary Leakey, were renowned palaeontologists who pioneered the archaeological excavation of East Africa’s Great Rift Valley.
Richard Leakey, the second of three brothers, spent his infancy following his parents on archaeological digs, looking for relics of extinct animals and human predecessors.
When he was 6, he discovered his first fossil, the jaw of an ancient species of enormous pig, but he was more interested in tracking living creatures in the field.
Richard Leakey, a world-renowned paleoanthropologist famed for his fossil-finding and conservation efforts in his home Kenya, died at the age of 77, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta confirmed.
Despite bouts of skin cancer, renal and liver problems, Leakey, whose seminal discoveries helped show that mankind evolved in Africa, remained active into his 70s.
When did Richard Leakey pass away?
Despite bouts of skin cancer, renal and liver problems, Leakey, whose seminal discoveries helped show that mankind evolved in Africa, remained active into his 70s.
Leakey died at the age of 77 died on January 2, 2022. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta confirmed it in a recent speech.
