The legendary scientist remained active way into his 70s despite not being able to walk, in addition to bouts of skin cancer, kidney and liver disease.

 The legendary scientist remained active way into his 70s despite not being able to walk, in addition to bouts of skin cancer, kidney and liver disease.

Born Dec. 19, 1944, Leakey was destined for palaeoanthropology -- the study of the human fossil record -- as the middle son of Louis and Mary Leakey, one of the most famous couples in history as researchers into man's origins. Thanks to them, there is overwhelming evidence that homo sapiens

 sapiens originated in Africa, which has been confirmed by genetic testing that humans separated from the chimpanzee line 5 million to 7 million years earlier. The Leakeys spent their lives digging in the earth in the search for human origins.

At age 23 Richard Leakey won a research grant from the National Geographic Society to dig on the shores of northern Kenya's Lake Turkana, despite having no archaeological training other than the one acquired through a lifetime spent with his parents. In the 1970s he led expeditions that reshaped the understanding of human evolution with key discoveries in 1972 and in 1975.