Colin Patterson (1933–1998), was ’n senior paleontoloog van die Britse Museum van Natuurgeskiedenis in Londen van 1962 tot sy amptelike aftrede in 1993. Hy het gespesialiseer in fossielvis en sistematiek. Hy was ’n evolusionis.

Onder skeppingsleerders is hy bekend vir die volgende aanhalings:

Aanhaling: vermiste skakels

Engels: I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them. You suggest that an artist should be used to visualise such transformations, but where would he get the information from? I could not, honestly, provide it, and if I were to leave it to artistic license, would that not mislead the reader? I wrote the text of my book four years ago. If I were to write it now, I think the book would be rather different. Gradualism is a concept I believe in, not just because of Darwin’s authority, but because my understanding of genetics seems to demand it. Yet Gould and the American Museum people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils. As a palaeontologist myself, I am much occupied with the philosophical problems of identifying ancestral forms in the fossil record. You say that I should at least “show a photo of the fossil from which each type of organism was derived.” I will lay it on the line – there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument.

Afrikaans: Ek is dit heeltemal eens met jou kommentaar oor die gebrek aan direkte illustrasie van evolusionêre oorgange in my boek. As ek geweet het van enige, fossiel of lewe, sou ek dit beslis ingesluit het. Jy stel voor dat ’n kunstenaar moet gebruik word om sulke transformasies te visualiseer, maar waar sou hy die inligting vandaan kry? Ek kon dit nie met eerlikheid verskaf nie, en as ek dit op ’n kunstenaar verlaat het, sou dit nie die leser mislei nie? Ek het die teks van my boek vier jaar gelede geskryf. As ek dit nou moes skryf, dink ek die boek sou anders gewees het. Gradualisme is ’n konsep waarin ek glo, nie net as gevolg van Darwin se gesag nie, maar omdat my verstaan van genetika blyk om dit te eis. Tog is Gould en die Amerikaanse Museum mense moeilik om te weerspreek wanneer hulle sê dat daar geen oorgang fossiele is nie. As ’n paleontoloog myself, is ek baie besig met die filosofiese probleme van die identifisering van voorvaderlike vorms in die fossielrekord. Jy sê dat ek ten minste “’n foto moet toon van die fossiel waarvan elke tipe organisme afgelei is.” Ek sal dit erken – daar is nie een so fossiel, waarvoor mens ’n waterdigte argument kan maak nie.

Bron: Persoonlike brief deur dr. Colin Patterson, 10 April 1979, Senior Paleontoloog by die British Museum of Natural History, Londen, aan Luther D. Sunderland; in Darwin’s Enigma, deur Luther D. Sunderland, Master Books, San Diego, VSA, bl. 89, 1984 That quote!—about the missing transitional fossils.

Talkorigins.org, ’n pro-evolusie webblad, beskuldig skeppingsleerders in die artikel Patterson Misquoted – A Tale of Two ‘Cites’ daarvan dat hierdie aanhaling buite konteks is. Dit is egter nie waar nie. Die artikel That quote!—about the missing transitional fossils gee die volle agtergrond van die aanhaling.

Aanhaling: evolusie is ’n feit(1)

Patterson het in die programrede by die Amerikaanse Museum vir Natuurgeskiedenis op 5 November 1981, die volgende gesê:

“Question is: Can you tell me anything you know about evolution, any one thing, any one thing that is true? I tried that question on the geology staff at the Field Museum of Natural History and the only answer I got was silence. I tried it on the members of the Evolutionary Morphology Seminar in the University of Chicago, a very prestigious body of evolutionists, and all I got there was silence for a long time and eventually one person said, “I do know one thing – it ought not to be taught in high school”.

Aanhaling: evolusie is ’n feit(2)

Engels: “all my life I had been duped into taking evolutionism as revealed truth”

Afrikaans: My hele lewe lank is ek bedrieg deur evolusionisme as geopenbaarde waarheid te aanvaar.

Bron: Evolution Is Religion, Not Science.