Article ID: CBB823532878

Stephen Jay Gould: Did He Bring Paleontology to the “High Table”? (2009)

unapi

In the seven years since Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould died, there have been only a few assessments of his role in paleobiology and evolutionary theory. Although non-paleontologists still do not realize it, the “punctuated equilibrium” model first proposed by Gould and Niles Eldredge in 1972 has widespread acceptance among paleontologists. Nearly all metazoans show stasis, with almost no good examples of gradual evolution. The most important implication is that fossil species are static over millions of years, even in the face of dramatic climate changes and other environmental selection factors. This widespread stasis cannot be explained by simplistic concepts like “stabilizing selection,” and remains a mystery that neontologists have not fully addressed or successfully explained. Despite the hope that paleontology would reach the “High Table” of evolutionary biology, the fact that most biologists largely do not understand or accept the implications of paleontological concepts such as species sorting and coordinated stasis suggests that paleontology still has not made the impact on evolutionary thinking that it deserves.

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Authors & Contributors
Sepkoski, David Christopher
Lenski, Richard E.
Dresow, Max
Jason Nyerere Bundy
Tamborini, Marco
Ruse, Michael
Concepts
Evolution
Paleontology
Fossils
Biology
Historians of science, modern
Contingency (philosophy)
Time Periods
20th century, late
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
21st century
Places
Great Britain
United States
Germany
China
Vienna (Austria)
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