60 Quotes by Richard Leakey

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.

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

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.

The elephants were being slaughtered in masses. Some were even killed in the vicinity of big tourist hotels.

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.

I would hazard a guess that we have found fossilized human remains of at least a thousand different specimens in South and East Africa, more or less complete at that. I think this is where the prelude to human history was primarily played out.

I can't think of any other region in the world which is such a vast source of fossils.

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

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.