Martin Pickford holds a Chair in Paleoanthropology and Prehistory at the Collège de France and researcher at the Département Histoire de la Terre in the Muséum national d'Histoire. In 2001 Martin Pickford together with Brigitte Senut and their team discovered Orrorin tugenensis, a hominid primate species dated between 5.8 and 6.2 million years ago and a potential ancestor of the genus Australopithecus.
At the time of Orrorin's discovery, researchers wishing to carry out palaeontological research in Kenya were required to be affiliated with an officially sanctioned Kenyan research organisation. Prior to 1993 the only institution with this privilege was the Kenya National Museums, in which Pickford was Head of the Department of Sites and Monuments from 1978 to 1984. As such the museum and its director used to enjoy a monopoly on palaeontological research in Kenya. However, 7 years before the discovery of Orrorin in 2000, following intense pressure from the international community, the Kenyan Government liberalised many facets of the political, economic and bureaucratic life of the country, and this included the monopoly on the country's palaeontological and archaeological resources that the National Museums of Kenya and its director Richard Leakey had previously enjoyed, both prior to, and following, the country's independence in 1963. In 1984, Pickford was congratulated in writing by the then director of the National Museums of Kenya Richard Leakey, with whom Pickford had attended high school in Nairobi, for completing three two-year contracts at the museum. Leakey informed Pickford that it was not possible to renew the contract a fourth time, as at that time there was a government-set limit placed on the quantity of such renewals. Pickford then settled in France, and in 1985, after contacting the Uganda Government, he launched the Uganda Paleontology Expedition. From 1971 to 1978 Pickford had carried out extensive research in the Tugen Hills under a permit issued by the Kenyan Office of the President. During the surveys Pickford and his team found many important fossils ranging in age from 15 million to 2 million years old. In 1974 he found the first hominid fossil from the 6-million-year-old Lukeino Formation, a lower molar, which is today included in the hypodigm of Orrorin tugenensis.
Selected publications
Senut, B., Pickford, M., Gommery, D., Mein, P., Cheboi, K., & Coppens, Y.. First hominid from the Miocene. Comptes RendusAcadémie des Sciences Paris, Série IIA Sciences de la Terre et des Planètes, 332, 137–144. Pickford, M.. The geological and faunal context of Late Miocene hominid remains from Lukeino, KenyaContexte géologique et faunique des restes d'hominidés du Miocène supérieur de Lukeino, Kenya. Comptes Rendus Académie des Sciences Paris, Série IIA Sciences de la Terre et des Planètes, 332, 2, 145–152. Pickford, M.. Louis B. Leakey: Beyond the evidence. London: Janus Pub. Co.
