DR MARY Leakey, a British archaeologist who with her late husband brought the world closer to understanding the origins of man, died yesterday aged 83.
Her death in Nairobi was announced by her son Richard Leakey, himself a renowned palaeontologist. A statement said she died peacefully.
Dr Leakey and her late husband, Louis, astounded the world with their fossil discoveries in Tanzania and Kenya that proved man was far older than had previously been believed. Her work indicated that human evolution began in east Africa about 3.5 million years ago.
Mary Nichol, a talented archaeologist and artist born in England, met Louis Leakey in London in 1933 when she was 20. She met Leakey again in Tanzania in 1935. They were married in 1936 and spent the next 30 years working together.
In 1978 she made what she considered to be her most important discovery - footprints made in volcanic ash by early hominids who lived 3.5 million years ago. The footprints proved that early man had walked upright much earlier than previously believed.
Like the Maasai, whose homeland covers the area the Leakeys excavated, Mary Leakey loved red. When she first went to Tanzania, several Maasai men offered her half a cow in exchange for her bright red lipstick. But it was the only one she had, so she turned them down.
She loved smoking small Cuban cigars and drinking single malt Scotch whisky, and preferred the outdoors to urban life.
Louis Leakey died in 1972. Their son Richard, who has been credited with important discoveries of his own, is a main opponent of President Daniel arap Moi. Mary Leakey is also survived by two other sons, Jonathan and Philip.
A memorial service is scheduled at Dr Leakey's home on Friday.