Kenya: death of famous paleontologist Richard Leakey, father of "Turkana boy"
Photo taken on June 27, 2018. World-renowned paleoanthropologist and environmentalist Richard Leakey speaks during an interview with AFP in Nairobi, Kenya.
- World-renowned Kenyan ecologist and politician Richard Leakey, who unearthed evidence that helped prove that humanity evolved in Africa, died on January 2, 2022 at the age of 77, a Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement.
AFP - YASUYOSHI CHIBA
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
World-renowned Kenyan paleontologist and politician Richard Leakey died Sunday at the age of 77, the Kenyan presidency announced.
His most famous discovery dates back to 1984, during an exploration in Lake Tukana, Kenya, where he unearthed an almost complete skeleton of Homo erectus, called "the boy from Turkana".
Advertising
Read more
"
This afternoon I learned with deep sadness the news of the passing of Dr Richard Erskine Frere Leakey, the former Kenya Public Service chief
," President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement Sunday evening.
Richard Leakey, the second of three sons of Louis and Mary Leakey, both paleontologists and archaeologists, rose to prominence by unearthing clues that helped prove the evolution of humanity in Africa.
Message of condolence from HE Hon.
Uhuru Kenyatta following the death of
former
Head of Public Service Dr. Richard Leakey
Read more: https://t.co/DFNCwgKC0n pic.twitter.com/uzGpskDHni
- State House Kenya (@StateHouseKenya) January 2, 2022
In the 1970s, Richard Leakey led several expeditions crowned with major and unprecedented discoveries, including the first Homo habilis skulls (1.9 million years old) in 1972 and Homo erectus (1.6 million years old) in 1975.
Its notoriety is made:
Time
magazine
devotes its front page to it.
Then in 1981, the BBC published a documentary in seven episodes, of which he was the narrator and presenter, on the evolution of humanity.
Richard Leakey, on the front page of “Time”, in November 1977. © Time
His most famous discovery dates from 1984, during an exploration in Lake Turkana, Kenya, where he unearthed an almost complete skeleton of Homo erectus, called "the boy from Turkana".
In 1989, he was asked by the then president, Daniel arap Moi, to head the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
There he led a vigorous campaign against the poaching of elephant ivory.
In 1993, his small plane Cessna crashed in Kenya's Rift Valley.
He had lost both legs in the accident.
Richard Leakey also dabbled in politics, headed several civil society institutions and briefly headed the country's Civil Service.
In 2015, despite poor health, he took over the leadership of KWS for a three-year term, at the request of President Kenyatta.
With AFP
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Kenya
Story
Paleontology
Culture