Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In evolutionary biology, punctuated equilibrium (also called punctuated equilibria) is a theory that proposes that once a species appears in the fossil record, the population will become stable, showing little evolutionary change for most of its geological history. [1] This state of little or no morphological change is called stasis.
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. To Gould, this trend was the result of species sorting, in which species with relatively larger brains were more likely to appear, or to survive.
The theory of punctuated equilibrium developed by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge and first presented in 1972 [61] is often mistakenly drawn into the discussion of transitional fossils. [62] This theory, however, pertains only to well-documented transitions within taxa or between closely related taxa over a geologically short period of time.
The color codes the age of the species. 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 .
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.
In the 1980s, the American palaeontologists Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge argued for an extended synthesis based on their idea of punctuated equilibrium, the role of species selection shaping large scale evolutionary patterns and natural selection working on multiple levels extending from genes to species. [30] [31] [32] [33]
Pages in category "Punctuated equilibrium" The following 8 pages are in this category, out of 8 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. D. Robert M. W. Dixon; E.
A diagram that summarizes all well-known paleopolyploidization events. Ancient genome duplications are widespread throughout eukaryotic lineages, particularly in plants. . Studies suggest that the common ancestor of Poaceae, the grass family which includes important crop species such as maize, rice, wheat, and sugar cane, shared a whole genome duplication about