To investigate the history of man's development, the most important finds are, of course, hominid fossils. Richard Leakey More Quotes by Richard Leakey More Quotes From Richard Leakey This is crocodile Lucy, and she was left in the field because shes too big to move. Shes been very damaged over time thats why it was particularly important to get a scan. Richard Leakey science He obviously fell into a swamp, which is why his bones were so complete and they weren't scavenged by animals. Richard Leakey science Once you have a digital model, you can do comparisons of morphology, you can do comparisons of teeth, theres any number of studies that can come out of it. Richard Leakey science The land is not in the least bit fertile and yet the cattle herds grow larger and larger. A cow represents capital investment here. Richard Leakey cow grow investment land 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. Richard Leakey good path age people We think that groups of between 30 and 40 early men would have settled in an area measuring a hundred square kilometers. Richard Leakey square early think men 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. Richard Leakey place wealth time world 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. Richard Leakey small difficult single forget I, too, am convinced that our ancestors came from Africa. Richard Leakey ancestors too africa our 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. Richard Leakey africa more think history I can't think of any other region in the world which is such a vast source of fossils. Richard Leakey which think source world 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. Richard Leakey lived more now problem 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. Richard Leakey try important together knowledge