Neil Shubin Quotes

United States, Paleoanthropologist
December 22, 1960

Neil Shubin is an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer. He is the Robert R. Bensley Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, Associate Dean of Organismal Biology and Anatomy and Professor on the Committee of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago along with being the Provost of the Field Museum of Natural History. He is best known for his co-discovery of Tiktaalik roseae with Ted Daeschler and Farish Jenkins.

Also known as Biologist, Science Writer

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

Neil Shubin
When you see these deep similarities among different organs and bodies, you begin to recognize that the diverse inhabitants of our world are just variations on a theme.

Neil Shubin

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

Neil Shubin
- Species
- Lived
- Extinct
Each galaxy, star, or person is the temporary owner of particles that have passed through the births and deaths of entities across vast reaches of time and space. The particles that make us have traveled billions of years across the universe; long after we and our planet are gone, they will be a part of other worlds.

Neil Shubin
The unknown should not be a source of suspicion, fear, or retreat to superstition, but motivation to continue asking questions and seeking answers.

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

Neil Shubin
- Teeth
- Feathers
- Scales