5 Quotes & Sayings By Donald Johanson

Donald Johanson is a field paleoanthropologist who co-discovered the Lucy fossil in 1974, and named it "Australopithecus afarensis" (meaning "southern ape of Afar") after Afar, Ethiopia, the region where fossils of the species were first found. He is currently a professor emeritus at Arizona State University.

1
Commitment, belief and positive attitude are all important if you're going to be a success, whether you're in sports, in business or, as in my case, anthropology. Donald Johanson
2
What's changed is we now have good anatomical, geological, archaeological evidence that Neanderthals are not our ancestors. When I wrote 'Lucy, ' I considered Neanderthals ancestors of modern humans. We have gone back twice the age of Lucy, six million years. And we see that upright bipedal walking goes back that far in time. Donald Johanson
3
I was aware of it, but I grew up in a very a-religious family. My mother never went to church, she never had any religious training or background. It was never a part of our social interaction. Donald Johanson
4
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. Donald Johanson