Richard Leakey, a fossil hunter who helped prove that humankind evolved in Africa, has died at the age of 77.
The president of the country of Kenya announced the death of Leakey.
Despite having bouts of skin cancer and other diseases, the renowned palaeoanthropologist remained energetic into his 70s.
The Leakey Foundation wrote on its website that he was a visionary who made great contributions to human origins and wildlife.
It was inevitable that Leakey would become a fossil hunter because his parents were the world's most famous discoverers of ancestral hominids.
Dr Richard Leakey was in 2016 Brad Barket is the photographer.
Although Leakey initially tried his hand at guiding, at the age of 23, he won a research grant to dig on the shores of northern Kenya's Lake Turkana.
The discovery of the skulls of Homo habilis and Homo erectus in 1972 and 1975, respectively, shed new light on the scientific understanding of human evolution.
He posed with a Homo habilis mock-up on the cover of Time magazine.
In 1981 he fronted the landmark seven-part BBC TV series The Making of Mankind, which led to him gaining wider fame.
In 1984 he would enjoy his most famous fossil find, the uncovering of a complete Homo erectus skeleton during one of his digs. The oldest human skeleton is named Turkana Boy and was found 1.5 million years ago.
During this decade, Leakey became one of the world's leading voices against the ivory trade. In 1989 Daniel arap Moi appointed him to lead the national wildlife agency, which became theKWS.
Softly spoken and seemingly devoid of personal vanity, Leakey's campaigning methods could nevertheless be eye-catching.
He orchestrated a publicity stunt of burning a pyre of ivory in order to make a point about the value of ivory after it is removed from elephants.
He held his nerve when ordering the killing of armed criminals.
Health challenges beset Leakey's illustrious career. He was diagnosed with terminal disease in 1969
He received a transplant from his brother after he was seriously ill.
In 1993 his plane crashed in the valley. He lost both legs. It was suspected of being a crime but never proved.
He told the Financial Times that he lived with armed guards and that he did not want to say that they tried to kill him. I decided to keep going with life.
Leakey joined the voices against the corrupt regime and eventually became an opposition politician.
His political career did not go as well as he would have liked, and in 1998 he was appointed to head the civil service in charge of fighting official corruption. He resigned after just two years after the task proved impossible.
In 2015, as another elephant-poaching crisis gripped Africa, Leakey was invited back to the KWS, this time as chairman of the board, a position he would hold for three years.
Dr Paula Kahumbu, the head of Wildlife Direct, a group founded by Leakey, paid tribute to him on the social networking site. May he rest in peace.
