Darwin 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. George Gaylord Simpson More Quotes by George Gaylord Simpson More Quotes From George Gaylord Simpson A rill in a barnyard and the Grand Canyon represent, in the main, stages of valley erosion that began some millions of years apart. George Gaylord Simpson erosionvalleysyears Almost all paleontologists recognize that the discovery of a complete transition is in any case unlikely. George Gaylord Simpson unlikelytransitiondiscovery I have a debt, a loyalty to the museum; the best place for me to do what I wanted to do. George Gaylord Simpson debtloyaltymuseums Human judgment is notoriously fallible and perhaps seldom more so than in facile decisions that a character has no adaptive significance because we do not know the use of it. George Gaylord Simpson decisioncharacterscience To put it crudely but graphically, the monkey who did not have a realistic perception of the tree branch he jumped for was soon a dead monkey-and therefore did not become one of our ancestors. George Gaylord Simpson treesciencedeath Splitting and gradual divergence of genera is exemplified very well and in a large variety of organisms. George Gaylord Simpson divergencesplittingwells 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. George Gaylord Simpson paleontologygroupsearth 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. George Gaylord Simpson newupfamilyknows Now we do have many examples of transitional sequences. George Gaylord Simpson transitionalexamplesmanynow Of course the orders all converge backward in time, to different degrees. George Gaylord Simpson backwardcoursedifferenttime
