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However, the punctuational equilibrium model may still be inferred from both the observation of stasis and examples of rapid and episodic speciation events documented in the fossil record. [70] Dawkins also emphasizes that punctuated equilibrium has been "oversold by some journalists", [71] but partly due to Eldredge and Gould's "later writings ...
Punctuated equilibrium, bottom, consists of morphological stability and rare, relatively rapid bursts of evolutionary change. There is debate as to the rate at which speciation events occur over geologic time.
Punctuated gradualism is considered to be a variation of these models, lying somewhere in between the phyletic gradualism model and the punctuated equilibrium model. It states that speciation is not needed for a lineage to rapidly evolve from one equilibrium to another but may show rapid transitions between long-stable states.
The Bak–Sneppen model is a simple model of co-evolution between interacting species. It was developed to show how self-organized criticality may explain key features of the fossil record, such as the distribution of sizes of extinction events and the phenomenon of punctuated equilibrium .
The extended evolutionary synthesis was called for in the 1950s by C. H. Waddington, argued for on the basis of punctuated equilibrium by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge in the 1980s, and was reconceptualized in 2007 by Massimo Pigliucci and Gerd B. Müller.
A period of stasis then occurs until the species either becomes extinct or splits again. Gould argued that punctuated equilibrium challenges the gradual change expected by extrapolationists. In the case of Hominid evolution, there is the evolutionary trend of marked increase in brain size.
Saltational speciation, also known as abrupt speciation, is the discontinuity in a lineage that occurs through genetic mutations, chromosomal aberrations or other evolutionary mechanisms that cause reproductively isolated individuals to establish a new species population.
Additionally, scientists research the 'tempo' of speciation, i.e. the rate at which species change genetically and/or morphologically. Classically, competing hypothesis for the tempo of specieation include phyletic gradualism and punctuated equilibrium). Lastly, what are the causes of speciation is also extensively researched. [1]