Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin knows evolution

Here’s a quick punk rock pop quiz: Which one of the genre’s spike-haired frontmen is an actual doctor? With a Ph.D. sheepskin from Ivy League institution Cornell, no less? Give up?

You’d never have known it if you caught the frenetic vocalist on recent tour with his band, Bad Religion — backing their new “The Dissent Of Man” piledriver for Epitaph — but yes, believe it or not, it’s Greg Graffin.

The man hasn’t rested on his zoology-degree laurels, either. He’s already lectured on paleontology and life sciences at UCLA, and has recently published a science memoir, aptly titled “Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science and Bad Religion in a World Without God.”

Jello Biafra, eat your analytical heart out.

But if you don’t catch Graffin or Bad Religion tour this summer in Europe, hey, forget it, bub. This fall, he’ll actually be lecturing at Cornell, teaching evolution with his geneticist pal Richard Harrison.

Dissent of man, indeed!

And sure, he’d probably love to win some huge showbiz award. But he’ll happily settle for this kudo from the Zoological Journal Of The Linnean Society In London: An ancient bird fossil unearthed in China’s Gansu Province was just named after him, Qiliana Graffini. Now Dr. Graffin is dead-set on researching the Cretaceous Period, from whence said specimen hails.

For extra credit, visit www.badreligion.com.

- Tom Lanham