News

The Leakey Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of our fall 2023 Research Grants. These outstanding scientists are leading groundbreaking studies that will expand our understanding of humanity.

Giant creatures are usually associated with dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, or mystical beasts. But if you go back through the human lineage you’ll find a very distant relative that stood three metres tall and weighed around 250 kilograms. This was Gigantopithecus blacki, the mightiest of all the primates and one of the biggest unresolved mysteries in paleontology.

Gordon Getty joined The Leakey Foundation in 1973 and has led the board of trustees since 1980. His leadership has made the foundation the thriving nonprofit it is today.

This December, your donation to The Leakey Foundation will be quadruple-matched thanks to a group of generous sponsors.

Music is universal in all human cultures, but why? New Leakey Foundation-supported research explores the evolutionary function of music and singing. The study focuses on women from the Mbendjele BaYaka, a hunter-gatherer community in the Republic of the Congo with a strong musical tradition. This research offers intriguing insights into how music fosters social bonding and communication.

This Giving Tuesday, a group of supporters has generously committed to quadruple-match all donations to The Leakey Foundation up to $6,500!

Researchers studying the Ngogo community of wild chimpanzees in western Uganda’s Kibale National Park for two decades has published a report in Science showing that females in this population can experience menopause and postreproductive survival.

The rotating shoulders and extending elbows that allow humans to reach for a high shelf or toss a ball with friends may have first evolved as a natural braking system.

Join Dr. Cara Ocobock on Lunch Break Science to learn how her research challenges traditional human evolution narratives and expands our understanding of women’s physical capabilities and endurance.

New Leakey Foundation-supported research shows how orangutans use observational social learning to find and process new kinds of foods when moving to new areas.