Mary Leakey

Mary Leakey's partnership with her husband Louis at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania was famously unequal in publicity: Louis did the lectures, while Mary ran the excavations and found the "Zinj" skull in 1959. After his death she led the team that uncovered the Laetoli footprints in 1978, evidence of upright walking 3.6 million years ago. Her career is a case study in collaboration where the quieter partner did much of the work.