Punctuated Equilibrium

Stephen J. Gould and another paleontologist, Niall's Eldridge, formulated this theory in the late 1970s. What they saw was a pattern of abrupt appearance and what they called stasis. There would be variation within the constraints of a body plan, but limited variation. The crocodile appears and remains. And so what they suggested was that there are these punctuation events where you have this sudden appearance, and then this long period of equilibrium of stasis. John Lennox: Instead of our findings regressing to some sort of Darwinian mean, they're departing from Darwin more than ever.