Tempo and Mode in Evolution: Punctuated Equilibria and the Modern Synthetic Theory

Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 1983 papers

Abstract

Several paleontologists have recently challenged the explanatory adequacy of the modern synthetic theory of evolution. Their position is that, contrary to the prevailing view that evolutionary change is gradual, the fossil record manifests long periods of species stasis (equilibrium) punctuated by periods of rapid species formation. And, they argue, this punctuated equilibria pattern challenges the gradualist, adaptationist and extrapolationist assumptions of the modern synthetic theory of evolution and supports a hierarchical, non-extrapolationist (non-reductionist) view of evolution. In this paper I argue that the challenge rests on an inadequate characterization of the modern synthetic theory and that, even accepting punctuated equilibria and an irreducible evolutionary hierarchy, the modern synthetic theory is adequate to explain evolutionary change at all levels of the hierarchy.

Related Papers

• → Tempo and Mode in Evolution: Punctuated Equilibria and the Modern Synthetic Theory(1983)22 cited
• → Evolution and Dogma(2009)8 cited
• → Th. Dobzhansky and the development of evolutionary biology in the USSR(2019)1 cited
• → The sun, its phenomena and physical features(1939)
• → Th.Dobzhanskyâs concept of human evolution(2020)