Phillip V. Tobias

Research interests have been varied, starting with cytogenetics. Other contributions have been in anatomy, archaeology, physical anthropology of living peoples of Africa, human genetics, history and philosophy of science. He is best known for his lifetime of contributions to palaeo-anthropology, with particular reference to early hominids of south and east Africa. He, along with LSB Leakey and J. Napier, recognized the earliest species of the genus Homo named by them Homo habilis. He described and defined the species Australopithecus boisei from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Since 1966 he has led excavations at Sterkfontein Caves near Johannesburg: he and his team have recovered 600 hominid fossils from that cave.