David M. Raup Quotes

#1. We now have a quarter of a million fossil species, but the situation hasn't changed much ... We have even fewer examples of evolutionary transition than we had in Darwin's time.

David M. Raup

#2. 250,000 species of plants and animals recorded and deposited in museums throughout the world did not support the gradual unfolding hoped for by Darwin.

David M. Raup

#3. I doubt if there is any single individual within the scientific community who could cope with the full range of [creationist] arguments without the help of an army of consultants in special fields.

David M. Raup

#4. Ironically, we have even fewer examples of evolutionary transitions than we had in Darwin's time.

David M. Raup

#5. The charge that the construction of the geologic scale involves circularity has a certain amount of validity ... Thus, the procedure is far from ideal and the geologic ranges are constantly being revised (usually extended) as new occurrences are found.

David M. Raup

#6. It has been argued that dinosaurs did not die out, but just evolved wings and flew away. At a certain level, this reasoning is sound ... Birds, as a group, did descend from dinosaurs and ... all 8,600 species of birds living today carry some inheritance from their reptilian ancestors.

David M. Raup

#7. A new theory is guilty until proven innocent, and the pre-existing theory innocent until proven guilty ... Continental drift was guilty until proven innocent.

David M. Raup