<Tr> <Th> Influences </Th> <Td> <Ul> <Li> Jane Goodall </Li> <Li> Louis Leakey </Li> <Li> George Schaller </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> Jane Goodall </Li> <Li> Louis Leakey </Li> <Li> George Schaller </Li> </Ul> <P> Dian Fossey (/ daɪˈæn /; January 16, 1932--c . December 26, 1985) was an American primatologist and conservationist known for undertaking an extensive study of mountain gorilla groups from 1966 until her death in 1985 . She studied them daily in the mountain forests of Rwanda, initially encouraged to work there by paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey . Her 1983 book, Gorillas in the Mist, combines her scientific study of the gorillas at Karisoke Research Center with her own personal story . It was adapted into a 1988 film of the same name . </P> <P> Called one of the foremost primatologists in the world, Fossey, along with Jane Goodall and Birutė Galdikas, were the so - called Trimates, a group of three prominent researchers on primates (Fossey on gorillas; Goodall on common chimpanzees; and Galdikas on orangutans). The three were sent by Leakey to study great apes in their natural environments . </P>

Who is known for decades of research on gorillas in the mountain forests of africa