“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.” EarthFoundGroupsSpeciesFossilsFractionsSampleNever ExpectPaleontology Author:George Gaylord Simpson
“It remains true, as every paleontologist knows, that most new species, genera, and families, and that nearly all categories above the level of families, appear in the record suddenly and are not led up to by known, gradual completely continuous transitional sequences.” KnowsLevelsKnownRecordsEvolutionRemainsSpeciesCategoriesFossilsSequenceStasis Author:George Gaylord Simpson
“The earliest and most primitive known members of every order already have the basic ordinal characters, and in no case is an approximately continuous sequence from one order to another known. In most cases the break is so sharp and the gap so large that the origin of the order is speculative and much disputed.” CharacterOrderKnownBreakCasesMembersGapsPrimitiveFossilsSequence Author:George Gaylord Simpson
