Editing Richard Leakey (section)

===Koobi Fora===
During the Omo expedition of 1967, Leakey visited Nairobi and on the return flight the pilot flew over [[Lake Rudolph]] (renamed Lake Turkana from 1975) to avoid a thunderstorm.<ref name="stonybrook">{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Brian |title=The First Family of Paleoanthropology |url=https://www.stonybrook.edu/magazine/2016-spring/the-first-family-of-paleoanthropology |website=Stony Brook University |access-date=3 January 2022 |language=en |date=Spring 2016}}</ref> The map led Leakey to expect volcanic rock below him but he saw sediments. Visiting the region with Howell by helicopter, he saw tools and fossils everywhere. In his mind, he started formulating a new enterprise.<ref name="stonybrook" />

In 1968 Louis and Richard attended a meeting of the Research and Exploration Committee of the National Geographic Society to ask for money for Omo.<ref name="alive">{{cite web |last1=Palmer |first1=Katie |title="I'M STILL ALIVE." |url=https://www.weareafricatravel.com/interviews/im-still-alive/ |website=We Are Africa |access-date=3 January 2022 |date=15 May 2017}}</ref> Catching Louis by surprise, Richard asked the committee to divert the $25,000 intended for Omo to new excavations to be conducted under his leadership at Koobi Fora. Richard won, but chairman [[Leonard Carmichael]] told him he'd better find something or never "come begging at our door again".<ref name="alive"/> Louis graciously congratulated Richard.<ref name="alive"/>

By that time the board of the [[National Museums of Kenya|National Museum]] was packed with Kenyan supporters of Richard. They appointed him administrative director.<ref>{{cite web |title=One Life |url=https://sites.google.com/a/or.books-now.com/en237/9780718122478-59tarmuGEpaji83 |access-date=3 January 2022}}</ref> The curator, Robert Carcasson, resigned in protest,<ref name="alive" /> and Leakey was left with the museum at his command, which he, like Louis before him, used as a base of operations.<ref>Morell, 1995, Chapter 21, "Breaking Away."</ref> Although there was friendly rivalry and contention between Louis and Richard, relations remained good. Each took over for the other when one was busy with something else or incapacitated, and Richard continued to inform his father immediately of hominid finds.<ref name="alive" />

In the first expedition to Allia Bay on Lake Turkana, where the Koobi Fora camp came to be located, Leakey hired primarily young researchers. The students included John Harris and Bernard Wood.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Frank |last2=Harris |first2=John |last3=Leakey |first3=Richard |last4=Walker |first4=Alan |title=Early Homo erectus skeleton from west Lake Turkana, Kenya |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/316788a0 |journal=Nature |access-date=3 January 2022 |pages=788–792 |language=en |doi=10.1038/316788a0 |date=August 1985|volume=316 |issue=6031 |pmid=3929141 |bibcode=1985Natur.316..788B |s2cid=4311887 }}</ref> Also present was a team of Africans under Kamoya: a geochemist, Paul Abel, and a photographer, [[Bob Campbell (photographer)|Bob Campbell]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Paul Abel and Richard Leakey Walking the Shores of Lake Turkana |url=https://vdocument.in/turkana-basin-institute-a-paul-abel-and-richard-leakey-walking-the-shores.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103044034/https://vdocument.in/turkana-basin-institute-a-paul-abel-and-richard-leakey-walking-the-shores.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=3 January 2022 |website=Turkana Basin Institute |access-date=3 January 2022 |language=en |date=3 February 2018}}</ref> Margaret was the archaeologist. In contrast to his father, Richard ran a disciplined and tidy camp, although, in order to find fossils, he did push the expedition harder than it wished.<ref name="aoa">{{cite web |title=Richard Leakey, Academy Class of 2007, Part 2 |url=https://achievement.org/video/richard-leakey-2/ |website=Academy of Achievement |access-date=3 January 2022}}</ref>

In 1969 the discovery of a cranium of ''[[Paranthropus boisei]]'' caused great excitement.<ref>{{cite web |title=Paranthropus boisei: cranium |url=https://www.si.edu/object/3d/paranthropus-boisei-cranium:081d5e0b-7181-4ccb-bfbd-9f906930c620 |website=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=3 January 2022 |language=en}}</ref> A ''[[Homo rudolfensis]]'' skull ([[KNM ER 1470]]) and a ''[[Homo erectus]]'' skull ([[KNM ER 3733]]), discovered in 1972 and 1975, respectively, were among the most significant finds of Leakey's earlier expeditions.<ref>{{cite web |title=Homo rudolfensis |url=https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-rudolfensis |website=The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program |access-date=3 January 2022 |language=en}}</ref> In 1978 an intact cranium of ''Homo erectus'' ([[KNM ER 3883]]) was discovered.<ref name="aoa"/>

[[Donald Johanson]] and Leakey held different views about human evolution. They held a debate on ''Cronkite's Universe'', a talk show hosted by [[Walter Cronkite]], in 1981.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lewin|first=Roger|title=Bones of Contention: Controversies in the Search for Human Origins|year=1987|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|isbn=0-671-52688-X|oclc=15520593|pages=[[iarchive:bonesofcontentio0000unse/page/13/mode/1up|13–14]]}}</ref>