Editing Louis Leakey (section)

==Work in palaeoanthropology==
===Olduvai Gorge===
{{blockquote|text=We know from the study of evolution that, again and again, various branches of animal stock have become over-specialized, and that over-specialization has led to their extinction. Present-day ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' is in many physical respects still very unspecialized ... But in one thing man, as we know him today, is over-specialized. His brain power is very over-specialized compared to the rest of his physical make-up, and it may well be that this over-specialization will lead, just as surely, to his extinction. ... if we are to control our future, we must first understand the past better.|Louis Leakey|''Adam's Ancestors'', 4th ed., final page}}
Beginning in 1951, Louis and Mary began intensive research at Olduvai Gorge. A trial trench in Bed II at BK in 1951 was followed by a more extensive excavation in 1952. They found what Louis termed an [[Oldowan]] "slaughter-house", an ancient bog where animals had been trapped and butchered. Excavations stopped in 1953 but were briefly resumed in 1955 with Jean Brown.<ref>Morell, Chapter 12, "Our Man".</ref>

In 1959, excavations at Bed I were opened. While Louis was sick in camp, Mary discovered the fossilized skull [[OH 5]] at FLK, ''[[Paranthropus boisei]]'', famously identified as "''Zinjanthropus''" or "Zinj." The question was whether the fossil belonged to a previous genus discovered by [[Robert Broom]], ''[[Paranthropus]]'', or a member of a different genus ancestral to humans. Louis opted for ''Zinjanthropus'', a decision opposed by [[Wilfrid Le Gros Clark]], but one which attracted the attention of [[Melville Bell Grosvenor]], president of the [[National Geographic Society]]. That contact resulted in an article in ''National Geographic''<ref>September 1960, ''Finding the World's Earliest Man''.</ref> and a large grant to continue work at Olduvai.

In 1960, geophysicists [[Jack Evernden]] and [[Garniss Curtis]] dated Bed I from 1.89 to 1.75 million years ago, confirming the great antiquity of fossil hominids in Africa.<ref name="TaylorAitken1997">{{cite book|editor-last=Taylor|editor-first=R. E.|editor2-last=Aitken|editor2-first=M. J.|title=Chronometric Dating in Archaeology, Vol. 2|pages=110|publisher=Springer-Verlag New York|year=1997|isbn=978-0-306-45715-9}}</ref>

In 1960, Louis appointed Mary director of excavation at Olduvai. She brought in a staff of [[Kamba people|Kamba]] assistants, including [[Kamoya Kimeu]], who later discovered many of eastern Africa's most famous fossils. At Olduvai, Mary set up Camp 5 and began work with her own staff and associates.

At "Jonny's site", FLK-NN, Jonathan Leakey discovered two skull fragments without the [[Australopithecine]] [[sagittal crest]], which Mary connected with Broom's and Robinson's ''[[Telanthropus]]''. The problem with it was its contemporaneity with ''Zinjanthropus''. When mailed photographs, Le Gros Clark retorted casually "Shades of [[Piltdown Man|Piltdown]]." Louis cabled him immediately and had some strong words at this suggestion of his incompetence. Clark apologized.<ref>Morell, Chapter 14, "Mary's Dig".</ref>

Not long afterwards, in 1960, Louis, his son Philip and Ray Pickering discovered a fossil he termed "Chellean Man", ([[Olduvai Hominid 9]]), in context with [[Oldowan]] tools. After reconstruction Louis and Mary called it "Pinhead." It was subsequently identified as ''Homo erectus'', contemporaneous with ''[[Paranthropus]]'' at 1.4 million years old.<ref>{{cite web|title=OH 9|url=http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/fossils/oh-9|website=Smithsonian Institution, Human Origins Initiative|date=7 February 2010|access-date=17 May 2016}}</ref>

In 1961 Louis got a salary as well as a grant from the [[National Geographic Society]] and turned over the acting directorship of Coryndon to a subordinate. He created the Centre for Prehistory and Paleontology on the same grounds, moved his collections to it, and appointed himself director. This was his new operations center. He opened another excavation at [[Fort Ternan]] on Lake Victoria. Shortly after, Heselon discovered ''[[Kenyapithecus wickeri]]'', named after the owner of the property. Louis promptly celebrated with [[George Gaylord Simpson]], who happened to be present, aboard the ''Miocene Lady'' with "Leakey Safari Specials", a drink made of [[condensed milk]] and [[cognac]].

In 1962 Louis was visiting Olduvai when Ndibo Mbuika discovered the first tooth of ''[[Homo habilis]]'' at MNK. Louis and Mary thought it was female and named her Cinderella, or Cindy. [[Phillip Tobias]] identified Jonny's Child with it and [[Raymond Dart]] came up with the name ''Homo habilis'' at Louis' request, which Tobias translated as "handyman."<ref>Morell Chapter 16, "The Human with Ability." [[Richard Leakey]] tells a different story about the name. See the ''Notes'' section of ''[[Homo habilis]]''.</ref> It was seen as intermediary between gracile ''[[Australopithecus]]'' and ''[[Homo]]''.<ref>These few paragraphs rely on Morell, Chapter 16, "The Human with Ability".</ref>

===Calico Hills===
{{Main|Calico Early Man Site}}

In 1959 Leakey, while at the [[British Museum of Natural History]] in London, received a visit from [[Ruth DeEtte Simpson]], an archaeologist from California. Simpson had acquired what looked like ancient [[Scraper (archaeology)|scraper]]s from a site in the Calico Hills and showed it to Leakey.

In 1963, Leakey obtained funds from the [[National Geographic Society]] and commenced [[archaeological excavation]]s with Simpson. Excavations at the site carried out by Leakey and Simpson revealed that they had located stone [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]] which were dated 100,000 years or older, suggesting a human presence in North America much earlier than others had estimated.<ref>Cameron B. Wesson, ''Historical Dictionary of Early North America'', 2005, p. 35.</ref>

The geologist [[Vance Haynes]] had made three visits to the site in 1973 and had claimed that the artifacts found by Leakey were naturally formed [[geofacts]]. According to Haynes, the geofacts were formed by stones becoming fractured in an ancient river on the site.<ref>Steven Mithen, ''After the Ice: a global human history, 20,000–5000 BC'', 2006, p. 540.</ref>

In her autobiography, [[Mary Leakey]] wrote that because of Louis's involvement with the Calico Hills site she had lost academic respect for him and that the Calico excavation project was "catastrophic to his professional career and was largely responsible for the parting of our ways".<ref>Mary Leakey, ''Disclosing the past'', 1984, pp. 142–144.</ref>