Cambrian Explosion: punctuated trillobites (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, January 27, 2017, 12:27 (2857 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: There are no precursors before the trilobites and the succeeding animals are very different. Come and go totally without Darwin gradulaism. Punctuated equilibrium is a fancy term to describe what we do not know about speciation:

No it’s not. It’s simply a term to describe the fact that evolution appears to be static for long periods and then to burst into sudden activity. It is a rejection of Darwin’s gradualism, but is not meant to explain speciation.

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2017/01/irony_alert_mic103445.html

QUOTE: "The story of anatomical change through time that I read in the Devonian trilobites of Gondwana is similar to the picture emerging elsewhere in the fossil record: long periods of little or no change, followed by the appearance of anatomically modified descendants, usually with no smoothly intergradational forms in evidence."

David’s comment: Evolution is a staccato dance from on distinct species to another. There never is any gradualism. Darwin's only contribution is to show us that it seems we evolved from earlier simpler life which was a common singular source. Period.

The “staccato dance” is your fancy term for punctuated equilibrium. We have long, long, long ago agreed that we do not accept Darwin’s random mutations or his gradualism, and we learned recently that even his bulldog Huxley rejected gradualism. But if it hadn’t been for Darwin, we might not even have been having these discussions. I know you much prefer Wallace’s take on evolution, but it happens to have been Darwin’s work that revolutionized modern thought, whether you like it or not, and that’s not bad for an “only contribution”!