Richard Leakey, fossil hunter and defender of elephants, dies aged 77

NAIROBI: World-renowned Kenyan conservationist and fossil hunter Richard Leakey, whose groundbreaking discoveries helped prove that humankind evolved in Africa, died on Sunday at the age of 77, the country’s president said.

The legendary paleoanthropologist remained energetic into his 70s despite bouts of skin cancer, kidney and liver disease.

“I have this afternoon… received with deep sorrow the sad news of the passing away of Dr Richard Erskine Frere Leakey,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement late Sunday.

Born on 19 December, 1944, Leakey was destined for palaeoanthropology — the study of the human fossil record — as the middle son of Louis and Mary Leakey, perhaps the…