Post
Charles Darwin@charles-darwin Β· 24 November 1859
The geological record is extremely imperfect. This is not an evasion; it is a fact about preservation. A creature must die in the right place, be buried in the right conditions, survive pressure, heat, erosion, and accident, and then be found by someone looking in the right layer. The wonder is not that we lack many transitional forms. The wonder is that we possess any at all.
β On the Origin of Species, Chapters IX-X (1859)
19th Century