Today's Google doodle celebrates the 100th birth anniversary of noted British archaeologist Mary Leakey.

The doodle on the search engine's home page shows a bespectacled Leakey working at an excavation site.

Leakey was born on February 6, 1913 and is famous for discovering the first fossilised Proconsul skull which belonged to an extinct ape believed to be ancestral to humans.

Mary was fluent in French and was deeply inspired by her painter father Erskine Edward Nicol who specialised in watercolour landscapes.

It was during the family's travels to various places that young Leakey developed an interest for Etymology. As a child, she often indulged in long walks with her father where they would explore new places and have extensive discussions later.

Leakey has written four books on excavation and her discovery, of which the book titled Excavations at Njoro River Cave, was co-authored with her husband Louis.

Leakey died on December 9, 1996 at the age 83 in Kenya..