Nature 366, 223 - 227 (18 November 1993); doi:10.1038/366223a0

Punctuated equilibrium comes of age

Stephan jay Gould & Niles Eldredge

Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA;
Department of Invertebrates, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, New York 10024, USA

The intense controversies that surrounded the youth of punctuated equilibrium have helped it mature to a useful extension of evolutionary theory. As a complement to phyletic gradualism, its most important implications remain the recognition of stasis as a meaningful and predominant pattern within the history of species, and in the recasting of macroevolution as the differential success of certain species (and their descendants) within clades.

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