You found one citation from more than 40 years ago that supports (sort of) your contention. This is HARDLY a swell of support for the claim.
At the end of the day the fossil record shows change in life forms over time. Often with nice "transitions" visible. And it supports the theory of evolution quite well.
Obtenebrator:
It doesn't matter how many years ago the citation was originally made. Nothing has changed in those 40 years.
FYI: I have many similar citations by pro-evolution paleontologists who were forced to admit the fossils record is filled with gaps. Below are more reluctant admissions by paleontologists who searched in vain for connections between fossils of one creature and its supposedly evolved version.
"There is no need to apologize any longer for the poverty of the fossil record. In some ways it has become almost unmanageably rich, and discovery is out-pacing integration...
The fossil record nevertheless
continues to be composed mainly of gaps." (George, T. Neville, "Fossils in Evolutionary Perspective,"
Science Progress, vol. 48 January 1960, pp. 1-3.)
"Despite the bright promise - that paleontology provides a means of 'seeing' evolution, it has presented
some nasty difficulties for evolutionists the most notorious of which is the presence of 'gaps' in the fossil record. Evolution requires intermediate forms between species and paleontology does not provide them. The gaps must therefore be a contingent feature of the record." (Kitts, David B., "Paleontology and Evolutionary Theory,"
Evolution, vol. 28, 1974, p. 467.)
"All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms;
transitions between major groups are characteristically abrupt. Gradualists usually extract themselves from this dilemma by invoking the extreme imperfection of the fossil record." (Gould, Stephen J.
The Panda'
s Thumb, 1980, p. 189.)
Notice that George Neville, in 1960, made it clear that the fossil record had become "almost unmanageably rich." In other words, the problem was not a lack of fossils. Instead, there was a lack of connection between the fossils. Neville said the record "continues to be composed mainly of gaps." Twenty years later, in 1980, Stephen Gould confirmed Neville's findings. He admitted there were no transitions between major groups of creatures.
Again, nothing has changed since the above comments were published by paleontologists, and we are now in 2024. None of the gaps that were seen in the fossil record decades ago have since been filled in with newly discovered examples of transitional fossils. Were that the case, it would have been published in bold print by the more recent pro-evolution paleontologists. But that hasn't happened; has it now?