‘Paleontologists disagree about the speed and pattern of evolution. But they do not – as much recent publicity has implied – doubt that evolution is a fact. The evidence for evolution simply does not depend upon the fossil record.
This is a terrible mistake; and it springs, I believe, from the false idea that the fossil record provides an important part of the evidence that evolution took place. In fact, evolution is proven by a totally separate set of arguments and the present debate within paleontology does not impinge at all on the evidence that supports evolution.’
Mark Ridley (Zoologist, Oxford University), ‘Who doubts evolution?’ New Scientist, vol.90, June 1981, p.830.