Quotessence
Home / Books / Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History

Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History

Book by Stephen Jay Gould · 3 quotes · Evolution, Form, Knows

Filter quotes by topic

Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History Quotes

“Organisms [...] are directed and limited by their past. They must remain imperfect in their form and function, and to that extent unpredictable since they are not optimal machines. We cannot know their future with certainty, if only because a myriad of quirky functional shifts lie within the capacity of any feature, however well adapted to a present role.”

“Since we proposed punctuated equilibria to explain trends, it is infuriating to be quoted again and again by creationists-whether through design or stupidity, I do not know-as admitting that the fossil record includes no transitional forms. Transitional forms are generally lacking at the species level, but they are abundant between larger groups.”