Paleontology Quotes

Paleontology Quote of the day

The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology.

I also discovered the only complete Brontosaurus skull.

Transitional forms are generally lacking at the species level, but they are abundant between larger groups.

The evidence for evolution pours in, not only from geology, paleontology, biogeography, and anatomy, but of course from molecular biology and every other branch of the life sciences.

In vertebrate paleontology, increasing knowledge leads to triumphant loss of clarity.

Mary Anning [is] probably the most important unsung (or inadequately sung) collecting force in the history of paleontology.

Human paleontology shares a peculiar trait with such disparate subjects as theology and extraterrestrial biology: it contains more practitioners than objects for study.

One of the laws of paleontology is that an animal which must protect itself with thick armour is degenerate. It is usually a sign that the species is on the road to extinction.

From an illustration in her "Animals of a Bygone Era": a Leptictidium, an extinct rabbit-like animal who left no descendants, says: "Too bad, because we were really cute.