Leakey, Meave << meev >> Gillian (1942-…), is a British-born zoologist and paleontologist who helped identify some of the oldest known humanlike fossils. In 1994 and 1995, a team of scientists led by Leakey and anthropologist Alan Walker of the United States found prehistoric fossils near Lake Turkana, Kenya. The scientists identified the fossils as Australopithecus anamensis, humanlike creatures that walked upright and lived about 4 million years ago. This group of fossils may belong to one of the earliest hominin (humanlike) species.
In 2001, Leakey announced that Kenyan fossil hunters on her team had discovered pieces of a hominin skull that were about 3.5 million years old. The skull appeared to be that of a previously unknown type of hominin. Leakey classified the skull as a new genus and species called Kenyanthropus platyops. Unlike other hominin fossils about the same age, such as those of Australopithecus afarensis, this skull has a much flatter face and smaller molars.
Meave G. Epps was born on July 28, 1942, in London. In 1965, British anthropologist Louis Leakey hired her to study monkeys and apes in Kenya. In 1969, Epps joined a fossil-hunting team led by Louis’s son, Richard, an important Kenyan scientist. She married Richard in 1971.
