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With pioneering methods, Jane Goodall’s research revealed how humans and chimps share ancestors

1. She discovered some long lost relatives

Goodall revolutionised the study of chimpanzees, pioneering new ways to study them. Through this she discovered that chimps used tools, created complex societies and could be so aggressive they could even kill one another. This suggested that chimps and humans are likely to have common ancestors. It was ground-breaking stuff.

2. She had to put up with some bad behaviour… not always from apes

The field of ape research, primatology, was a male-dominated profession before Goodall. She found many of her predecessors snobbishly objected to being told their theories were wrong by a Bournemouth-educated young woman, who’d made her own way to Africa with no formal qualifications. Who’s in the text books now though chaps?

3. She questioned what makes us human

While Goodall’s work made waves amongst her fellow researchers, the public enthusiastically responded to her revelations. The idea that chimps and humans were related spurred debates about what it means to be human, inspiring a rethink on animal rights. Her books were so widely read that when one of Jane’s subjects Flo died in 1972 The Sunday Times ran an obituary.