But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed on the earth, be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record.


chapter IX: "On the Imperfection of the Geological Record", page 280 - On the Origin of Species (1859)

Charles Darwin Quotes

But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have...

But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have...

But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have...

But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have...