Kamoya Kimeu

Kamoya Kimeu (born in 1940 in Makueni County)[1] is a Kenyan paleontologist and curator, whose contributions to the field of paleoanthropology have been recognised with the National Geographic Society's LaGorce Medal and with a honorary Doctorate of Science degree from Case Western Reserve University.

Biography

Kimeu began to work in paleoanthropology as a laborer for Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey in the 1950s. In 1963, he joined Richard Leakey's expeditions, accompanying him to the Omo River and Lake Rudolf (now Lake Turkana) in 1967. He quickly became Richard Leakey's right-hand man, assuming control of field operations in Leakey's absence. In 1977 he became the National Museums of Kenya's curator for all prehistoric sites in Kenya.

Kimeu found a Homo habilis skull known as KNM-ER 1813, an almost complete Homo ergaster skeleton named KNM-WT 15000 or Turkana Boy (also known as Nariokotome boy), and in 1964 the jaw of a Paranthropus boisei skull known as the Peninj Mandible.[2][3]

Eponyms

Kimeu has two fossil primates named after him: Kamoyapithecus hamiltoni and Cercopithecoides kimeui.

Awards

See also

References
  1. Mutu, Kari (2021-07-18). "Honour finds Kenya's oldest fossil hunter Kamoya Kimeu". The EastAfrican. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  2. Journal of Eastern African Research and Development. East African Literature Bureau. 1974. p. 129. The mandible was discovered by Kamoya Kimeu in 1964, during an expedition conducted by Richard Leakey and Glynn Isaac.
  3. Morell, Virginia (2011). Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings. Simon and Schuster. p. 303. ISBN 978-1-4391-4387-2.
  4. Larsen, Clark Spencer (2011). Our Origins: Discovering Physical Anthropology. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 312. ISBN 978-0-393-93498-4.
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