Donald Johanson Quotes

As An Undergraduate, I Had An Opportunity To Go On A Number Of Archeological Digs. So I Had Experience Excavating, Digging Up Remains Of Ancient Indian Villages In The Midwest And In The Southwest.

My Real Father Died When I Was Two Years Old, So I Never Knew Him. He Was A Barber In Chicago.

When The First Fossils Began To Be Found In Eastern Africa, In The Late 1950s, I Thought, What A Wonderful Marriage This Was, Biology And Anthropology. I Was Around 16 Years Old When I Made This Particular Choice Of Academic Pursuit.

There Have Been Some Friendships Lost Over This. That's The Most Difficult For Me. I Find It Very Uncomfortable To Know That I Was At One Time Close Friends With Someone, And Because Of Jealousies And Misunderstandings And So On, These Friendships Have Dissolved.

The Right Question To Ask From A Darwinian Prospective Is What Was It About Bipedalism That Was So Advantageous? Why Did It Lead To A - Why Did That Adaptation Ultimately Lead To A Species Homo Sapiens That Has Come To Dominate The Planet Today With Six And A Half Billion People?

Most Achievers I Know Are People Who Have Made A Strong And Deep Dedication To Pursuing A Particular Goal. That Dedication Took A Tremendous Amount Of Effort.

Scientists Are Very Afraid Of Being Proven Wrong.

Lucy Brought With Her An Image Of Our Human Ancestors That You Don't Get When You Find A Jaw Or An Arm Bone Or A Leg Bone. Here Was 40 Percent Of A Single Skeleton.

Normally, We Are Happy To Find A Fragment Of Jaw, A Few Isolated Teeth, A Bit Of An Arm, A Bit Of A Skull. But To Find Associated Body Parts Is Extremely Rare.

But What Really Excited Me Was The Idea That Humans Had A Tremendous Pre-history That Went Back Millions Of Years. I Wanted To Go To Africa To Find Some Of These Creatures.

One Has To Devote Oneself To A Particular Pursuit. To Be Successful At Anything, You Have To Make A Total Commitment To It.

And What I Wanted To Do Was, I Wanted To Explore Problems And Areas Where We Didn't Have Answers. In Fact, Where We Didn't Even Know The Right Questions To Ask.