Richard Leakey Quotes & Sayings

“Primates need good nutrition, to begin with. Not only fruits and plants, but insects as well.”

“Along the borders to Ethiopia and Somalia, anarchy reigns, the police and military have retreated quite some distance.”

“Elephants can live to an age of up to 70 or 80 years and they have a good memory. It could be they come across an area that is experiencing a drought. Then they continue on their path and run into people.”

“We hope to find more pieces of the puzzle which will shed light on the connection between this upright, walking ape, our early ancestor, and modern man.”

“A number of scientists with greatly different backgrounds can come up with completely different assessments. The discussions or controversies are endless. Once a year, we try to bring the most important discoverers together to exchange their experiences and knowledge.”

“One should not forget that there are very few surviving items from this period, often just single, small bones, a tooth, a sliver of the skull. Categorizing these pieces can be very difficult.”

“For fossils to thrive, certain favorable circumstances are required. First of all, of course, remnants of life have to be there. These then need to be washed over with water as soon as possible, so that the bones are covered with a layer of sediment.”

“Earlier, 100,000 elephants lived in Kenya and we didn't have any noteworthy problem with it. The problem that we have is not that there are now more elephants.”

“It is virtually impossible to control Northern Kenya, which is populated chiefly by migrant nomads.”

“Paleoanthropology is not a science that ends with the discovery of a bone. One has to have the original to work with. It is a life-long task.”