You don’t just magically flip some evolutionary switch somewhere and transmute a quadruped into an upright-walking bipedal human. Donald Johanson Read Quote
Regardless of what we look like on the outside, genetically, on the inside, everyone is an African. Donald Johanson Read Quote
If you were to go to the National Museum in Addis Ababa, you would walk into a huge room filled with literally tens of tons of fossils, and most of them would be elephants and rhinos and hippopotamus and monkeys and giraffes and antelopes and so on. Hominids are very rare in the landscape, and it’s very rare to find them. Donald Johanson Read Quote
I find a tremendous receptivity among the public for the subject matter of, ‘Where did we come from and how did we get here?’ People are thirsty and hungry for information on our origins. I feel a responsibility as a major figure in the area… to convey to the public the knowledge of human origins in a way that is understandable to them. Donald Johanson Read Quote
It’s very hard for all of us, when we’ve committed ourselves to a particular interpretation, to change our minds. Donald Johanson Read Quote
I was being groomed as an undergraduate to specialize in Midwestern prehistory, but going back to my teenage days, my interest has always been in our early human ancestors. I wanted to work in Africa. Donald Johanson Read Quote
Evolution is a fact. It is the best explanation of what is known from observations. It’s a theory as powerful as the theory of gravity. Donald Johanson Read Quote
In our case, finding a Lucy is unique. No one will ever find another Lucy. You can’t order one from a biological supply house. It’s a unique discovery, a unique specimen. Donald Johanson Read Quote
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. Donald Johanson Read Quote
