What is Mary Leakey?
{{Infobox scientist |name = Mary Leakey |image = Mary Leakey.jpg |birth_date = {{birth date|1913|2|6|df=y}} |birth_place = [[London]], England, UK |death_date = {{dda|1996|12|9|1913|2|6|df=y}} |death_place = [[Nairobi]], [[Kenya]], <br>[[East Africa]] |residence = |citizenship = |nationality = British |ethnicity = |spouse = [[Louis Leakey]] |field = [[Anthropologist]], [[Archeologist]] |work_institutions = |alma_mater = |doctoral_advisor = |doctoral_students = |known_for = [[Hominid]] fossils, [[Laetoli]] |influences = |influenced = |signature = }} [[Image:Paranthropus boisei skull.jpg|thumb|200px|Replica of an ''[[Australopithecus boisei]]'' skull discovered by Mary Leakey in 1959]] [[File:Earliest known human footprints - one set - australopithecus afarensis - Smithsonian Museum of Natural History - 2012-05-17.jpg|thumb|200px|Cast of the Laetoli footprints, on display in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.]] '''Mary Douglas Leakey''', [[Fellow of the British Academy|FBA]] (née '''Nicol''', 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British archaeologist and anthropologist, who spent much of her life working in [[East Africa]], in [[Tanzania]] and [[Kenya]]. She discovered the first fossilized ''[[Proconsul (primate)|Proconsul]]'' skull, an extinct primate. They had a mixture of [[Old World monkey]] and [[ape]] characteristics, and their position in the evolution of the apes is still not clear. Leakey also discovered the robust ''[[Zinjanthropus]]'' skull at [[Olduvai Gorge]]. For much of her career she worked together with her husband, [[Louis Leakey]], in Olduvai Gorge, uncovering the [[tool]]s and fossils of ancient [[hominin]]s. She developed a system for [[Taxonomy|classifying]] the stone tools found at Olduvai. She also discovered the [[Laetoli footprints]]. In 1960 she became director of excavation at Olduvai. Eventually, she chose an