My father so appropriately put it that we are certainly the only animal that makes conscious choices that are bad for our survival as a species.
Louise LeakeyRead
If you want to become a fossil, you actually need to die somewhere where your bones will be rapidly buried. You then hope that the earth moves in such a way as to bring the bones back up to the surface. And then you hope that one of us lot will walk around and find small pieces of you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fossilization is a rare process that requires specific conditions to preserve remains for future discovery.
This quote by Louise Leakey highlights the intricate and improbable conditions necessary for fossilization. It emphasizes the importance of environment and timing in the preservation of life forms over geological time, as well as the complexities involved in how we come to discover and understand our ancient ancestors through fossil records.
Themes
FossilScientific DiscoveryPreservationTimeBones
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a scientific presentation about paleontology.
More from Louise Leakey
All quotes →I think when you work on fossils, and you realize that a species is there, and it's abundant for quite a long period of time, and then at some point it's no longer there - and so, when you look at that bigger picture, yes, you realize that either you change and adapt, or, as a species, you go extinct.
Louise LeakeyRead
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