#fossils

The idea that one can go to the fossil record and expect to empirically recover an ancestor-descendant sequence, be it of species, genera, families, or whatever, has been, and continues to be, a pernicious illusion. ↗

— Gareth J. Nelson

#darwin #darwinism #evolution #fossil-record #fossils

We are concerned that, in a few years time, this place of discovery, with its wealth of human fossils, the like of which can be found nowhere else in the world, could be completely destroyed. ↗

— Richard Leakey

#concerned #could #destroyed #discovery #else

Through the study of fossils I had already been initiated into the mysteries of prehistoric creations. ↗

— Pierre Loti

#been #creations #fossils #had #i

The sand stones had fragments of charcoal on some surfaces but found no recognisable fossils. ↗

— George Mercer Dawson

#fossils #found #fragments #had #recognisable

I can't think of any other region in the world which is such a vast source of fossils. ↗

— Richard Leakey

#fossils #i #other #region #source

To investigate the history of man's development, the most important finds are, of course, hominid fossils. ↗

— Richard Leakey

#development #finds #fossils #history #hominid

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

#africa #anthropology #around #began #biology

Oaths are the fossils of piety. ↗

— George Santayana

#oaths #piety

The phrase 'the fossil record' sounds impressive and authoritative. As used by some persons it becomes, as intended, intimidating, taking on the aura of esoteric truth as expounded by an elite class of specialists. But what is it, really, this fossil record? Only data in search of interpretation. All claims to the contrary that I know, and I know of several, are so much superstition. ↗

— Gareth J. Nelson

#darwin #darwinism #evolution #fossil-record #fossils

No fossil is buried with its birth certificate. That, and the scarcity of fossils, means that it is effectively impossible to link fossils into chains of cause and effect in any valid way... To take a line of fossils and claim that they represent a lineage is not a scientific hypothesis that can be tested, but an assertion that carries the same validity as a bedtime story—amusing, perhaps even instructive, but not scientific. ↗

— Henry Gee

#confessions-of-the-darwinists #darwin #darwinism #darwinist-confessions #evolution