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	Louis Leakey (ca. 1960) Portrait of Louis Leakey (photo ca. 1960).
	Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (1903-1972) was a British paleoanthropologist and archaeologist who, together with his wife Mary, made a series of discoveries  at Olduvai Gorge providing crucial evidence of the early evolution of hominins in East Africa. He also established programs of research into palaeoanthropology and primatology in Africa, teaching and working with a number of prominent scholars (including members of his own family). Born in Kenya of missionary parents, Louis Leakey studied paleonotology and archaeology at Cambridge University in England. He first worked at Olduvai in the early 1930s. After returning to England with his wife Mary, in 1937 they travelled to Kenya to study the Kikiyu tribe. During World War II Louis worked in Intelligence for the Kenyan governent. In the late 1940s, the Leakeys were able to return to paleoanthropological research, with an expedition to Rusinga Island where in 1948 Mary found the first skull of the Miocene ape Proconsul. In 1951 they began work at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, located in the rift valley where Pliocene and early Pleistocene levels were exposed.  Among the many important fossils of early human ancestors (hominins) discovered at Olduvai were Zinjanthropus, a form of Australopithecus robustus, found by Mary Leakey in 1959; and Homo habilis (named by Raymond Dart as "handy man") a transitional form beween australopithecines and Homo, found in 1962.  References Leakey, L. 1934. Adam's Ancestors: The Evolution of Man and His Culture Leakey, L. and W. LeGros Clark  1951.    The Miocene Hominoidea of East Africa.  Fossil Mammals of Africa, vol.1. The Natural History Museum in London. Leakey, L. 1951.    Olduvai Gorge: A Report on the Evolution of the Hand-Axe Culture in Beds I-IV. Leakey, L. 1965    Olduvai Gorge: A Preliminary Report on the Geology and Fauna, 1951–61. Leakey, L. 1974    By the Evidence: Memoirs, 1932–1951 . \
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