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"Darwin (1859) recognized the fact that paleontology then seemed to provide evidence against rather for evolution in general or the gradual origin of taxonomic categories in particular."
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Exlpore more Evolution quotes
"I think it's imperative that we continue confusing light with meaning. That's how the human race evolves. Someone sees a light, names it God, goes toward it, goes up in flames. Same goes for moths. We're all animals. There's nothing revolutionary about evolution. The process itself relies solely on stupidity. We fuck up in the hopes that future fuckups will learn from us."
"Pivotal changes occur with every period of time."
"In microbiology the roles of mutation and selection in evolution are coming to be better understood through the use of bacterial cultures of mutant strains."
"There's always something coming. Good or bad, it's going to force you to grow."
"The Burgess Shale is not unique, but for those who study evolution and fossils it has become something of an icon. It provides a reference point and a benchmark, a point of common discussion and an issue of universal scientific interest."
"We're living in topsy-turvy times, and I think that what causes the topsy-turvy feeling is inadequacy of old forms of thought to deal with new experiences. I've heard it said that the only real learning results from hang-ups, where instead of expanding the branches of what you already know, you have to stop and drift laterally for a while until you come across something that allows you to expand the roots of what you already know. Everyone's familiar with that. I think the same thing occurs with whole civilizations when expansion's needed at the roots."
"Evolution thus is merely contingent on certain processes articulated by Darwin: variation and selection."
"Evolution has no long-term goal. There is no long-distance target, no final perfection to serve as a criterion for selection, although human vanity cherishes the absurd notion that our species is the final goal of evolution."
Explore more quotes by George G. Simpson
"I don't know where to put whales. I'm sticking them here, but I don't have any reason for it."
"Certainly paleontologists have found samples of an extremely small fraction, only, of the earth's extinct species, and even for groups that are most readily preserved and found as fossils they can never expect to find more than a fraction."
"Every paleontologist knows that most new species, genera, and families, and that nearly all categories above the level of family appear in the record suddenly and are not led up to by known, gradual, completely continuous transitional sequences."
"Man is the result of a purposeless and materialistic process that did not have him in mind. He was not planned."
"Most of the dogmatic religions have exhibited a perverse talent for taking the wrong side on the most important concepts in the material universe, from the structure of the solar system to the origin of man."
"Almost all paleontologists recognize that the discovery of a complete transition is in any case unlikely."
"He is a state of matter, a form of life, a sort of animal, and a species of the Order Primates, akin nearly or remotely to all of life and indeed to all that is material."
"Recognition of this kinship with the rest of the universe is necessary for understanding him, but his essential nature is defined by qualities found nowhere else, not by those he has in common with apes, fishes, trees, fire, or anything other than himself."
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