Back to David's theory of evolution: stasis,Darwin's problem (Evolution)

by dhw, Sunday, August 23, 2020, 12:56 (1551 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: All of these examples show us that substantial evolutionary change can happen rapidly. They suggest that natural selection, rather than being a slow and gradual shaper of species, is most evident in brief bursts of change following major disruption. (David’s bold)

dhw: All of this, including your bold, is a description of punctuated equilibrium. It DOES work! It's Darwin's gradualism that doesn't work.

DAVID: The term is descriptive, not a working mechanism.

dhw: You said it didn't work as a theoretical answer. I took this to mean you didn't think the theory was correct.

DAVID: I fully believe in stasis which creates gaps of new development followed by sudden changes. Gould's Darwinian invention is obviously just descriptive of the gaps that troubled him with an attempted explanation that described species isolating/becoming isolated and redesigning themselves. Proves nothing. A thought experiment that is fruitless about an explanation.

Thank you for the clarification. The article was only concerned with rapid change after stasis, as opposed to Darwin’s gradualism, and I thought you were disagreeing with that.