Stephen Jay Gould Extinction Quotations

Precise adaptation, with each part finely honed to perform a definite function in an optimal way, can only lead to blind alleys, dead ends, and extinction.

We who revel in nature's diversity and feel instructed by every animal tend to brand Homo sapiens as the greatest catastrophe since the Cretaceous extinction.

Mass extinctions may not threaten distant futures, but they are decidedly unpleasant for species caught up in the throes of their power.