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.
Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould proposed punctuated equilibria in 1972. Punctuated equilibrium is a refinement to evolutionary theory. It describes patterns of descent taking place in "fits and starts" separated by long periods of stability. Eldredge went on to develop a hierarchical vision of evolutionary and ecological systems. Around this ...
His theory evoked rivalry with the proponents of punctuated equilibrium, Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge, who endorsed H. erectus as a model of their theory. [4] [9] In an earlier example of punctuated evolution preceding the global diffusion of Homo sapiens genes from Africa, some two million years ago, Wolpoff points to evidence of an ...
The theory posits that most social systems exist in an extended period of stasis, which may be punctuated by sudden shifts leading to radical change. The theory was largely inspired by the evolutionary biology theory of punctuated equilibrium developed by paleontologists Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould .
Punctuated equilibrium [ edit ] 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.
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.
Nearly half of all women have "dense breasts"—yet countless don't find out until later in life. Dense breasts have more fibrous and glandular tissue relative to fat tissue in the breast.
Hugh Falconer MD FRS (29 February 1808 – 31 January 1865 [1]) was a Scottish geologist, botanist, palaeontologist, and paleoanthropologist.He studied the flora, fauna, and geology of India, Assam, Burma, and most of the Mediterranean islands and was the first to suggest the modern evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium.