Zeresenay Alemseged Quotes

Zeresenay Alemseged — Ethiopian Scientist born on June 04, 1969,

Zeresenay Alemseged is an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist and Chair of the Anthropology Department at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, USA. He is best known for his discovery, on December 10, 2000, of Selam, also referred to as “Lucy’s child”, the almost-complete fossilized remains of a 3.3 million year old child of the species Australopithecus afarensis. The “world’s oldest child”, she is the most complete skeleton of a human ancestor discovered to date. Selam represents a milestone in our understanding of human and pre-human evolution and contributes significantly to our understanding of the biology and childhood of early species in the human lineage; a subject about which we have very little information. Alemseged discovered Selam while working with the Dikika Research Project, a multi-national research project, which he both initiated in 1999 and leads. The DRP has thus far made many important paleoanthropological discoveries and returns to the field each year to conduct further important research. Alemseged’s specific research centers on the discovery and interpretation of hominin fossil remains and their environments, with emphasis on fieldwork designed to acquire new data on early hominin skeletal biology, environmental context, and behavior... (wikipedia)

At age three, if you have a still-growing brain, it's a human behavior. In chimps, by age three, the brain is formed over 90 percent. That's why they can cope with their environment very easily after birth - faster than us, anyway. But in humans, we continue to grow our brains. That's why we need care from our parents.

I'm a paleoanthropologist, and my job is to define man's place in nature and explore what makes us human.

I learned that the first technology appeared in the form of stone tools, 2.6 million years ago. First entertainment comes evidence from flutes that are 35,000 years old. And evidence for first design comes 75,000 years old - beads. And you can do the same with your genes and track them back in time.

Because I am interested in the growth and development of early hominids, I play with my kids, you know, looking at their teeth or measuring their heads, which they like also, because it's kind of fun.

I went to start the first Ethiopian-led project in paleoanthropology, ever. Doing that was not easy.

Zeresenay Alemseged Quotes

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