Niles Eldridge

Evolutionary biologist and developer, with Stephen Jay Gould, of the theory of punctuated equilibrium.

Harper's Magazine, 2/1985, p60.

"There have been an awful lot of stories, some more imaginative than others, about what the nature of that history [of life] really is. The most famous example ... is the exhibition on horse evolution prepared perhaps fifty years ago. That has been presented as the literal truth in text-book after text-book. Now I think that this is lamentable, particularly when people who propose those kinds of stories may themselves be aware of the speculative nature of some of that stuff. "

"The Triumph of Evolution and the Failure of Creationism", New York, W.H.Freeman, 2000

"the common expression 'evolutionary theory' actually refers to two rather different sets of ideas: (1) the notion that absolutely all organisms living on the face of the Earth right now are descended from a single common ancestor, and (2) ideas of how the evolutionary process works .. Creationists love to gloss over this rather clear-cut, simple distinction between the idea that (1) life has evolved, and the sets of ideas on (2) how the evolutionary process actually works." p24 [Fuz Rana reviews this book in Facts for Faith, no. 3 (Q3 2000) p60-61]

"One of the most arresting facts that I have ever learned is that life goes back as far in Earth history as we can possibly trace it ... In the very oldest rocks that stand a chance of showing signs of life, we find those signs."p35-36