Climate change: We have never faced a more critical time on our planet

Primates need good nutrition, to begin with. Not only fruits and plants, but insects as well.

Echoing the criticism made of his father's habilis skulls, he added that Lucy's skull was so incomplete that most of it was 'imagination made of plaster of Paris', thus making it impossible to draw any firm conclusion about what species she belonged to.

To have arrived on this earth as a product of a biological accident, only to depart through human arrogance, would be the ultimate irony.

Climate change: We have never faced a more critical time on our planet

For fossils to thrive, certain favorable circumstances are required. First of all, of course, remnants of life have to be there. These then need to be washed over with water as soon as possible, so that the bones are covered with a layer of sediment.

When out fossil hunting, it is very easy to forget that rather than telling you how the creatures lived, the remains you find indicate only where they became fossilized.