Quotes from George Gaylord Simpson

Almost all paleontologists recognize that the discovery of a complete transition is in any case unlikely.

Of course the orders all converge backward in time, to different degrees.

...the argument from absence of transitional types boils down to the striking fact that such types are always lacking unless they have been found.

Splitting and gradual divergence of genera is exemplified very well and in a large variety of organisms.

I have a debt, a loyalty to the museum; the best place for me to do what I wanted to do.

Now we do have many examples of transitional sequences.

Species evolve exactly as if they were adapting as best they could to a changing world, and not at all as if they were moving toward a set goal.