"True, it is the geneticists who are privy to...the "determinants" of evolution. Paleontologists cannot hope to study directly such factors as rate and magnitude of mutation, the effects of population size and generation time or various aspects of selection and genetic drift; such lie squarely within the purview of genetics."

What the good professor, Niles Edlredge, is essentially saying here is that when it comes to the actual causes of evolution only geneticists, i.e., Francis Collins, can talk. All other scientists are in over their head.

Next time someone quotes a scientist to try to shut you up because you are not one, remember this.

**** On a side note, I found it humorous that the good professor stated "On the issue of adaptation, because I have remained a fairly conventional neo-Darwinian, I confess not to have followed Grene's lead in questioning the ubiquity, or necessary efficacy, of natural selection."

Remember that too the next time they say your Doc has kept up with the "science" of jabba jabbas.

https://www.academia.edu/48252690/Marjorie_Grene_tTwo_Evolutionary_Theories_and_modern_evolutionary_theory?pop_sutd=false