“The common error lies in failing to recognize that apparent trends can be generated as by-products, or side consequences, of expansions and contractions in the amount of variation within a system, and not by anything directly moving anywhere.”

—  Stephen Jay Gould

Source: Full House (1996), Chapter 3, “Different Parsings, Different Images of Trends” (p. 33)

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Stephen Jay Gould 274
American evolutionary biologist 1941–2002

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