Macroevolution: Pattern and Process

Stanley, Professor Steven M.

ISBN 10: 080185735X / ISBN 13: 9780801857355

Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Macroevolution: Pattern and Process
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080185735X
• ISBN 13: 9780801857355
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: good

About this title

Synopsis

In Macroevolution, Steven Stanley addresses, from a paleobiologist's perspective, the question of whether punctuated equilibria or gradualism offers the best account of the history of life. Punctuated equilibria, a view popularized by Stephen Jay Gould among others, holds that species remain evolutionarily static for long periods of time and undergo substantial genetic changes and develop new, primarily adaptive, strategies during speciation. In contrast, gradualism views large-scale changes as the result of continual and successive small-scale changes. Coming down on the side of those who favor the model of punctuated equilibria, Stanley argues that only "quantum speciation" (speciation that is rapid and radically divergent) can explain the story of life revealed in the fossil record; macroevolutionary trends, he contends, can be explained by selection among species and, to a lesser extent, by phylogenetic drift and directed speciation.

About the Author

Steven M. Stanley is professor of paleobiology at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of numerous books, including Extinction and Children of the Ice Age: How a Global Catastrophe Allowed Humans to Evolve.