| ECLECTIC MIX: Clockwise from top left: Vivien Leigh, Richard Dimbleby, Peter Cushing, Norman Parkinson,
Mary Leakey, Shankly, Benjamin Britten, David Lloyd George, Elizabeth David and John Archer
A third generation white Kenyan, Richard Leakey was born in 1944, the son of famous paleontologists Louis Seymour Leakey and
Mary Leakey who discovered Australopithecus boisei - a critical link in the evolution of man - in Oldevei Gorge, northern Tanzania.
Louis and
Mary Leakey were digging for ancient bones on the shores of Lake Victoria, but their little boy wanted to play.
Turn to the Last Word page to get to know
Mary Leakey.
6 -- Google doodle is back on Google's home page, as the search engine giant today celebrates the 100th birth anniversary of
Mary Leakey - the British archaeologist and anthropologist who is widely known for discovering the first fossilized Proconsul (an extinct ape believed to be ancestral to humans) skull.
Nairobi's National Museum of Kenya is preparing to reopen in 2007 with a special "Origins of Man" exhibit featuring bones and skulls, many of which were discovered by paleontologists Louis and
Mary Leakey. However, if evangelicals have their way the world's most important collection of human fossils may soon be hidden from public view.
Mary Leakey discovered the first fossils of a Proconsul in 1959 in Kenya.
Louis and
Mary Leakey uncovered skeleton remains of humans dating back 1.7 million years, and their discovery has played an important part in our understanding of man's evolution.
He was also at hand to watch
Mary Leakey uncover the fossil footprints of three human antecedents who lived more than 3.6m years ago in Kenya's Rift Valley.