Neil Shubin Quotes

[T]he unknown should not be a source of suspicion, fear, or retreat to superstition, but motivation to continue asking questions and seeking answers.

We were staring at the origin of a piece of our own bodies inside this 375-million-year-old fish. We had a fish with a wrist.

In preparing for battle, I have found that planning is essential, but plans are useless. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

With respect to the ZPA, what kind of digit develops depends on how close the digit is to the source of Sonic hedgehog.

Over 99 percent of all species that ever lived are now extinct.

We would never have scales, feathers, or breasts if we didn't have teeth in the first place.

All the genetic switches that make fingers, arm bones, and toes do their thing during the third to eighth week after conception.

In a perfectly designed world - one with no history - we would not have to suffer everything from hemorrhoids to cancer.

Imagine a house coming together spontaneously from all the information contained in the bricks: that is how animal bodies are made.

We were not designed rationally, but are products of a convoluted history.