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The observation that species are amazingly conservative and static entities throughout long periods of time has all the qualities of the emperor's new clothes: everyone knew it but preferred to ignore it. Paleontologists, faced with a recalcitrant record obstinately refusing to yield Darwin's predicted pattern, simply looked the other way.

Niles Eldredge

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Niles Eldredge
Age: 81
Born: 1943
Born: August 25
Paleontologist
Pathologist
University Teacher
New Jersey
United States
Everyone
Periods
Ignore
Darwin
Long
Record
Yield
Preferred
Obstinately
Way
Looked
Qualities
Fossils
Recalcitrant
Time
Clothes
Observation
Static
Stasis
Records
Throughout
Emperor
Amazingly
Simply
Patterns
Faced
Predicted
Knew
Conservative
Entity
Entities
Quality
Species
Pattern
Refusing

More quotes by Niles Eldredge

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And it has been the paleontologist- my own breed-who have been most responsible for letting ideas dominate reality: ...We paleontologist have said that the history of life supports that interpretation [gradual adaptive change], all the while knowing that it does not.
Niles Eldredge
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One measure of the greatness of a work is that the characters who play roles in the narrative feel its essential truth. As someone who is proud to have been there during much of the action David Sepkoski describes, I give his description and analysis of the history of paleobiology a five-star rating to my mind, this actually was the way it was.
Niles Eldredge