Leakey, Richard Erskine Frere (1944-2022), was a Kenyan scientist who discovered many prehistoric human fossils at Lake Turkana, Kenya. In 1969, for example, he discovered a nearly complete skull of a humanlike creature that belonged to the species Australopithecus boisei. The skull was about 1,750,000 years old.
In 1972, a Kenyan fossil hunter on Leakey’s team named Bernard Ngeneo found pieces of a skull that were about 1,900,000 years old. The pieces are among the earliest human fossils ever found, but scientists are unsure whether to classify them in the species Homo habilis or in the species Homo rudolfensis. In 1984, another Kenyan member of Leakey’s team, Kamoya Kimeu, found an almost complete human skeleton that dates from about 1,600,000 years ago. Some scientists believe the skeleton belongs to the species Homo erectus. Others think Homo erectus lived only in Asia and that the skeleton belongs to the species Homo ergaster.
Leakey was born on Dec. 19, 1944, in Nairobi, Kenya. He was the son of distinguished British anthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey. Richard Leakey directed the National Museums of Kenya from 1968 to 1989. From 1990 to 1994, and briefly again in 1998, he headed the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). In that position, he worked to eliminate the illegal killing of Kenyan elephants for their tusks, a source of ivory. In 1995, Leakey helped found a Kenyan political party called Safina. From 1999 to 2001, he was head of the Kenya Civil Service. In 2015, he was again appointed to head the KWS. Leakey died on Jan. 2, 2022.
