Richard Leakey
Richard Leakey
Richard Erskine Frere Leakeyis a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist, and politician. He is second of the three sons of the archaeologists Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey, and is the younger half-brother of Colin Leakey...
NationalityKenyan
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth19 December 1944
CityNairobi, Kenya
CountryKenya
counts ground hold
Baboons, for example, live on the ground as well as in the trees, where they try to get hold of birds' eggs. What counts is the right balance.
devote minds secure
Let us devote our minds - the one thing we have more of than other apes - and let's secure their future.
elephants kenya lived problem
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.
african bodies both bring concern expressed loss possible pressure species terrible unless venue
There should be concern expressed at every possible venue to bring pressure on both the African governments and on the international bodies to do something about this. Unless this is stopped, these species could become extinct, and it would be a terrible loss to humanity.
absolutely animals closest imagine longer
The slaughter of chimpanzees and gorillas, our closest relatives, is absolutely diabolical. I can't imagine that this can go on much longer before these animals are extinct,
across age area continue elephants good run
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.
few items pieces surviving
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.
vast
I can't think of any other region in the world which is such a vast source of fossils.
convinced
I, too, am convinced that our ancestors came from Africa.
area groups hundred men settled
We think that groups of between 30 and 40 early men would have settled in an area measuring a hundred square kilometers.
concerned few found human nowhere
We are concerned that, in a few years time, this place of discovery, with its wealth of human fossils, the like of which can be found nowhere else in the world, could be completely destroyed.
bit capital cattle fertile herds land larger represents
The land is not in the least bit fertile and yet the cattle herds grow larger and larger. A cow represents capital investment here.
years creative brain
For three million years we were hunter-gatherers, and it was through the evolutionary pressures of that way of life that a brain so adaptable and so creative eventually emerged. Today we stand with the brains of hunter-gatherers in our heads, looking out on a modern world made comfortable for some by the fruits of human inventiveness, and made miserable for others by the scandal of deprivation in the midst of plenty.
doubt atheism stories
The whole story is about change. We are very lucky that the earth's history is recorded in fossilized remains. And we can see the changes. Unfortunately, there will always be gaps in our knowledge, but there is no doubt that we and everything living today has evolved.