Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans. Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, introduction
My family has been an evolutionary mistake, Rab. Rab C Nesbitt s8e2: Heat, father in law, BBC 1999
The problem then was not only how and why do species change, but how and why do they change into new and well-defined species, distinguished from each other in so many ways; why and how they become so exactly adapted to distinct modes of life; and why do all the intermediate grades die out (as geology shows they have died out) and leave only clearly defined and well-marked species, genera, and higher groups of animals? Alfred Russel Wallace, autobiography
It then occurred to me that these causes or their equivalents are continually acting in the case of animals also; and as animals usually breed much more quickly than does mankind, the destruction every year from these causes must be enormous in order to keep down the numbers of each species, since evidently they do not increase regularly from year to year, as otherwise the world would long ago have been crowded with those that breed most quickly. Vaguely thinking over the enormous and constant destruction which this implied, it occurred to me to ask the question, Why do some die and some live? And the answer was clearly, on the whole the best fitted live ... and considering the amount of individual variation that my experience as a collector had shown me to exist, then it followed that all the changes necessary for the adaptation of the species to the changing conditions would be brought about ... In this way every part of an animal’s organization could be modified exactly as required, and in the very process of this modification the unmodified would die out, and thus the definite characters and the clear isolation of each new species would be explained. ibid.
There is no part of natural history more interesting or instructive than the study of the geographical distribution of animals. Alfred Russel Wallace
The action of this principle is exactly like that of the centrifugal governor of the steam engine, which checks and corrects any irregularities almost before they become evident; and in like manner no unbalanced deficiency in the animal kingdom can ever reach any conspicuous magnitude, because it would make itself felt at the very first step, by rendering existence difficult and extinction almost sure soon to follow. Alfred Russel Wallace, paper 1858
Evolutionists have been very clear about this distinction of fact and theory from the very beginning, if only because we have always acknowledged how far we are from completely understanding the mechanisms (theory) by which evolution (fact) occurred. Darwin continually emphasized the difference between his two great and separate accomplishments: establishing the fact of evolution, and proposing a theory – natural selection – to explain the mechanism of evolution. Stephen J Gould, Evolution as Fact and Theory, 1981
We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a ‘higher answer’ – but none exists. Stephen J Gould
Today, the theory of evolution is an accepted fact for everyone but a fundamentalist minority, whose objections are based not on reasoning but on doctrinaire adherence to religious principles. Dr James D Watson, co-winner of Nobel Prize for discovery of DNA structure
No sensible person would have ever left the body the way it is ... We have an appendix, wisdom teeth, birth is difficult, many people get near-sightedness, and the combination of some things being so perfect and other things being such botch jobs is what should make us sit up and take notice that this is something that has been shaped by Natural Selection that has a lot of vulnerabilities built in that can be explained only by how Natural Selection works. Professor Randolph Nesse
The ancient rain forests of Borneo ... I’m travelling in the footsteps of one of the great forgotten heroes of natural philosophy – Alfred Russel Wallace. Bill Bailey’s Jungle Hero I, BBC 2013
This geeky Victorian collector changed our understanding of life on Earth. Along with Charles Darwin he came up with one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time – the theory of evolution by natural selection. ibid.
He is an unlikely hero. ibid.
Freelance collecting was how Wallace funded his far-flung expeditions. ibid.
Wallace discovered about five thousand new species. ibid.
His adventure would last eight long years. ibid.
In January 1856 he left Borneo and sailed more than three thousand kilometres via Singapore, Bali and Lombok to the island of Sulawesi. Bill Bailey’s Jungle Hero II: Wallace in the Spice Islands
This dramatic boundary would become known as The Wallace Line. ibid.
When he wasn’t eating potential specimens Wallace was sending them home to sell to museums and private enthusiasts. ibid.
Isolated animals became new and distinct species. Islands are natural laboratories for evolution. ibid.
Seeing these birds of paradise – these entirely new birds of paradise – must have been an extraordinary culmination of his quest. ibid.
Vicious bouts of malarial fever kept him confined to his hut for weeks. ibid.
In this struggle for existence tiny variations matter. ibid.
Wallace knew immediately he had cracked it ... He just popped it in the post ... When Darwin read him it sent him into meltdown. ibid.
The Darwin/Wallace Theory of Natural Selection was announced to the world in London in July 1858. Wallace was still away searching for birds of paradise. ibid.
Wallace was robbed. ibid.
The best scientific explanation we have for the origin of the universe and everything in the universe including all living systems and ourselves is by what I call neo-Darwinian evolution ... It does not at all contrast with any Catholic teaching. Father George Coyne, interview Professor Richard Dawkins
There’s been an effort within the scientific community to censor out [tautology] information against evolution ... Teach the controversy ... Scientist are now claiming that they are the only ones who can speak on this issue. Wendy Richards, Concerned Women for America, interview Professor Richard Dawkins
Something like the shrew was the ancestor of all the mammals. One line took to the trees, developing dexterity, stereo-vision, larger brains, and a curiosity about their environment. Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan, Cosmos: One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue, PBS 1980
The essence of artificial selection for a horse or a cow, a grain of rice or a heike crab is this: many characteristics are inherited; they breed true. ibid.
But if artificial selection makes such changes in only a few thousand years, what must natural selection working for billions of years be capable of? The answer is all the beauty and diversity in the biological world. ibid.
There are almost no important differences between apes and humans. ibid.
We got smarter. We began to talk. Many collateral branches of the human family became extinct in the last few hundred million years. We with our brains and our hands are the survivors. There is an unbroken thread that stretches from those first cells to us. ibid.
The idea of a designer is an appealing and altogether human explanation of the biological world. But as Darwin and Wallace showed there is another way, equally human and far more compelling. Natural selection which makes the music more beautiful as the aeons pass. ibid.
When asked merely if they accept evolution 45% of Americans say yes. The figure is 70% in China. When the movie Jurassic Park was shown in Israel, it was condemned by some Orthodox rabbis because it accepted evolution and because it taught that dinosaurs lived a hundred million years ago – when, as is plainly stated at every Rosh Hashonhan and every Jewish wedding ceremony, the Universe is less than six thousand years old. Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
I meet many people offended by evolution, who passionately prefer to be the personal handicraft of God than to arise by blind physical and chemical forces over aeons from slime. They also tend to be less than assiduous in exposing themselves to the evidence. Evidence has little to do with it: what they wish to be true, they believe is true ... The clearest evidence of our evolution can be found in our genes. But evolution is still being fought, ironically by those whose own DNA proclaims it – in the schools, in the courts, in textbook publishing houses, and on the question of just how much pain we can inflict on other animals without crossing some ethical threshold. ibid.