Martin Pickford (born 1943) is a lecturer in the Chair of Paleoanthropology and Prehistory at theCollège de France^[1] and honourary affiliate at the Département Histoire de la Terre in theMuséum national d'Histoire.^[2] In 2001, Martin Pickford together withBrigitte Senut and their team discoveredOrrorin tugenensis, ahominid primatespecies dated between 5.8 and 6.2 million years ago and a potential ancestor of thegenusAustralopithecus.^[3]

Martin Pickford
Martin Pickford, 2011 atNaturmuseum Senckenberg (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), identifyingfossil teeth ofSuidae fromIndonesia, excavated from thestratum ofHomo erectus fromSangiran
Born	1943 (age 81–82) Wiltshire, England,United Kingdom
Citizenship	Kenyan
Alma mater	Dalhousie University (Bachelor's),University of London (PhD)
Known for	discovery ofOrrorin tugenensis (2001)
Scientific career
Institutions	Uganda Paleontology Expedition,Collège de France,Muséum national d'histoire naturelle,National Museums of Kenya,University of Mainz
Thesis	Stratigraphy and Palaeoecology of Five Late Cainozoic Formations in the Kenya Rift Valley (1974)

Pickford wasborn in 1943 inWiltshire,England.^[4] He is the 4th child of Austin Joseph Pickford and Eleanor Margery Pickford née Holman. The family moved to Kenya in 1946.^{[citation needed]} He read for his first degree between 1967 and 1971 inDalhousie University and took a PhD at the University of London in 1975. Between 1978 and 2003 he worked at Kenya National Museums at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris and as a Fellow at theUniversity of Mainz, Germany and has since held various visiting professorships.^[4]

At the time of the discovery ofOrrorin, researchers wishing to carry out palaeontological research inKenya were required to be affiliated with an officially sanctioned Kenyan research organisation. Prior to 1993 the only institution with this privilege was theKenya National Museums, in which Pickford was Head of the Department of Sites and Monuments from 1978 to 1984. As such themuseum and its director used to enjoy a monopoly on palaeontological research in Kenya. However, 7 years before the discovery ofOrrorin 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 directorRichard 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 KenyaRichard 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.^{[citation needed]} Pickford then settled in France, and in 1985, after contacting theUganda Government, he launched the Uganda Paleontology Expedition.

From 1971 to 1978 Pickford had carried out extensive research in theTugen Hills under a permit issued by the Kenyan Office of the President.^{[citation needed]} 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-oldLukeino Formation (published inNature in 1975), a lower molar, which is today included in thehypodigm ofOrrorin tugenensis. He also namedOrrorin praegens in 2022.

Below is a list of taxa that Pickford has contributed to naming:

• Senut, B., Pickford, M., Gommery, D., Mein, P., Cheboi, K., & Coppens, Y. (20 January 2001). "First hominid from the Miocene (Lukeino Formation, Kenya)".Comptes Rendus Académie des Sciences Paris, Série IIA Sciences de la Terre et des Planètes, 332, 137–144.
• Pickford, M. (30 January 2001). "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. (1997).Louis B. Leakey: Beyond the evidence. London: Janus Pub. Co.^[14]

• http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v410/n6828/full/410508a0.html
• "Orrorin tugenesis". 16 September 2001. Archived from the original on 19 January 2006. Retrieved26 November 2007.

• Regal, Brian (2004).Human evolution: A guide to the debates. Santa Barbara, California, USA: ABC-CLIO.