Punctuated Equilibrium support from research? (Introduction)
by David Turell 
, Saturday, December 12, 2009, 00:14 (5243 days ago)
Here are two entries about the same study, which purports to show, that 80% of the time, new species appear from a single event, not multiple slow steps.-http://www.physorg.com/news179737267.html-http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature08630.html-Note the author's comments that Darwinists will not like his findings.
Punctuated Equilibrium support from research?
by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Saturday, December 19, 2009, 15:55 (5236 days ago) @ David Turell
Here are two entries about the same study, which purports to show, that 80% of the time, new species appear from a single event, not multiple slow steps. > > http://www.physorg.com/news179737267.html > > http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature08630.html &#... > Note the author's comments that Darwinists will not like his findings.-Ah, I can kind of see now why you use the term "Darwinist." I certainly like this model even if I can't get access to the paper itself. -Even if the view of evolution changes however, I still don't understand how it would support design over chance. Those genes will still need to be transferred to a future generation--to beat the same drum--so differentiating this model from the darwinian can quite simply be a semantic argument based on what constitutes a major change. To resolve it you'd have to really look at the DNA line by line from the "parent" to the "child," and come up with a % difference that is more than the mutation rate provided by sexual reproduction alone. In this test I'm going to be strict and say that a major change is only that which is beyond what one would expect from typical sexual reproduction. It would also have to be a trait transmissible to the "child's" children.-I say this because sometimes drastic events happen with minor changes in genetic coding, there's no guarantee that a jump in phenotype results from a "drastic change" in genotype.
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Punctuated Equilibrium support from research?
by David Turell , Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 23:30 (4203 days ago) @ David Turell
New evidence of stasis from the LaBrea tar pit in Los angeles:- "Thus, the data show that birds and mammals at Rancho La Brea show complete stasis and were unresponsive to the major climate change that occurred at 20 ka, consistent with other studies of Pleistocene animals and plants. Most explanations for such stasis (stabilizing selection, canalization) fail in this setting where climate is changing. One possible explanation is that most large birds and mammals are very broadly adapted and relatively insensitive to changes in their environments, although even the small mammals of the Pleistocene show stasis during climate change, too.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Highlights- â-º Neo-Darwinian theory views organisms as infinitely sensitive, responsive to their environments. â-º Examined size and shape change of all of the common birds and mammals from Rancho La Brea tar pits. â-º Sampled over the last 35,000 years of climate change during the Last Glacial...Interglacial cycle. â-º Statistical analysis showed complete stasis from 35 ka to 9 ka. â-º Most large birds and mammals are broadly adapted, relatively insensitive to environmental change."- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379112003289
Punctuated Equilibrium support from research?
by David Turell , Tuesday, June 25, 2013, 15:52 (3952 days ago) @ David Turell
New research finds mutations that set up hormone receptors 500 million years ago for sex hormones:-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130624152617.htm
Punctuated Equilibrium in Australia
by David Turell , Friday, October 18, 2019, 21:02 (1645 days ago) @ David Turell
Strange new animals in an isolated place:
https://phys.org/news/2019-10-oddness-australian-creatures.html
"Australian creatures like the echidna and the koala are celebrated for their oddness. The fossil record shows that this oddity reaches far back into prehistory, as illustrated in the form of a fossil horseshoe crab found in Tasmania that has been renamed by UNE paleontologist Dr. Russell Bicknell.
"'The specimen from the Upper Permian Jackey Shale records a moment in time when Australian organisms were diverging towards the weirdness we see today in animals like the platypus," Dr. Bicknell said.
"'It has large backward-pointing spines that are unknown to all related horseshoe crabs, and was much smaller than the species we have today. It's possible that the spines were an adaptation to the one-way flows of freshwater, which was probably where this species lived."
"The specimen, owned by the University of Tasmania, was assigned to the genus Paleolimulus in 1989—a category that Dr. Bicknell described as "sort of a taxonomic waste-basket for specimens that don't quite fit elsewhere".
"His re-assessment confirmed that it didn't belong in that genus, and so he bestowed the fossil with a new name, Tasmaniolimuluspatersoni, and placed it in the taxonomic Family that references Australia: Austrolimulidae.
***
"It is the third fossil horseshoe crab named by Dr. Bicknell. The first he named Sloveniolimulus rudkini, after a fellow horseshoe crab researcher, Dave Rudkin and the second he named Pickettia after one of Australia's other premier palaeontologists, John Pickett.
"Australia's unusual fauna are likely a result of long geographic isolation, during which species took their own evolutionary paths as they occupied the ecological niches available to them.
"Dr. Bicknell regards Tasmaniolimulus patersoni as another example of this Australian exceptionalism—except that the species existed right at the outset of the region's divergence from other norms."
Comment: Certainly supports Gould and Eldridge ideas.
Punctuated Equilibrium support from research? Not!!
by David Turell , Sunday, June 28, 2020, 15:30 (1392 days ago) @ David Turell
New research on the same species Gould used says he was wrong with no support for his theory:
https://scitechdaily.com/the-most-popular-textbook-example-of-punctuated-evolution-has-...
"Evolutionary biologists have for a long time disagreed on the rate of evolution when new species emerge. Are new species the result of gradual changes – as Charles Darwin suggested – or is evolution speeding up for short periods of time when new species evolve?
"World renowned paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) formulated the theory of punctuated equilibrium together with Niles Eldredge (1943-) in 1972. The theory states that species remain more or less unaltered during their existence, with major evolutionary change happening during rapid events of speciation. As evidence for this view, Gould pointed to the fossil record.
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"In a new paper from researchers at the University of Oslo, the authors claim to have found several methodological problems in the most famous and well-trusted example supporting the theory of punctuated equilibrium.
“'We find no evidence for punctuated evolution in our reanalysis of the most recognized dataset that Gould used to support his theory,” says Kjetil Lysne Voje at UiO’s Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES) at the Department of Biosciences.
"Fossils of the bryozoan genus Metrarabdotos – a group of aquatic invertebrates thoroughly investigated by the excellent paleobiologist Alan Cheetham – have been the prime example of punctuated evolution.
"Gould called Metrarabdotos “the most brilliantly persuasive, and most meticulously documented, example ever presented for predominant (in this case, exclusive) punctuated equilibrium in a full lineage”
“'We detected some critical methodological issues in the original work on Metrarabdotos. When we take the methodological issues into account, we do not find any evidence of punctuated evolution in our reanalysis of the Metrarabdotos data,” says Kjetil Lysne Voje
***
"The bryozoan genus Metrarabdotos has been used as a textbook example in evolutionary biology and paleontology, showing how evolution speeds up when new species form compared to a much slower evolution of already established species.
“'But our new results show nothing else than a gradual evolution of the bryozoan species both before, during and after the formation of new species,” emphasizes Voje.
"The idea of fast-track evolution during speciation has been controversial. Critics of the theory of punctuated equilibrium found it difficult to believe that the evolutionary processes leading to new species should be markedly different from the processes that cause already existing species to change.
“'Species are continuously evolving and our results support the hypothesis that evolution does not “behave” differently when new species emerge,” says Voje."
Comment: regarding my bold we only know existing species adapt to change. Gould was concerned about the gaps all over the fossil record. This criticism is not surprising in view of the fact that Gould's Ph.D. thesis about snails has been shown to have errors. Science is self-correcting most of the time.
Punctuated Equilibrium support from research? Not!!
QUOTES: “'But our new results show nothing else than a gradual evolution of the bryozoan species both before, during and after the formation of new species,” emphasizes Voje.
"The idea of fast-track evolution during speciation has been controversial. Critics of the theory of punctuated equilibrium found it difficult to believe that the evolutionary processes leading to new species should be markedly different from the processes that cause already existing species to change."
“'Species are continuously evolving and our results support the hypothesis that evolution does not “behave” differently when new species emerge,” says Voje."
DAVID: ... we only know existing species adapt to change. Gould was concerned about the gaps all over the fossil record. This criticism is not surprising in view of the fact that Gould's Ph.D. thesis about snails has been shown to have errors. Science is self-correcting most of the time.
So these scientists support Darwin’s gradualism (“natura non facit saltum”). That doesn’t help your theory one little bit. But of course we are still left with the problem of the Cambrian.
Punctuated Equilibrium support from research? Not!!
by David Turell , Monday, June 29, 2020, 16:11 (1391 days ago) @ dhw
QUOTES: “'But our new results show nothing else than a gradual evolution of the bryozoan species both before, during and after the formation of new species,” emphasizes Voje.
"The idea of fast-track evolution during speciation has been controversial. Critics of the theory of punctuated equilibrium found it difficult to believe that the evolutionary processes leading to new species should be markedly different from the processes that cause already existing species to change."
“'Species are continuously evolving and our results support the hypothesis that evolution does not “behave” differently when new species emerge,” says Voje."
DAVID: ... we only know existing species adapt to change. Gould was concerned about the gaps all over the fossil record. This criticism is not surprising in view of the fact that Gould's Ph.D. thesis about snails has been shown to have errors. Science is self-correcting most of the time.
dhw: So these scientists support Darwin’s gradualism (“natura non facit saltum”). That doesn’t help your theory one little bit. But of course we are still left with the problem of the Cambrian.
And it doesn't hurt it. We can't find Darwin's gradualism but can accept his point that we evolved.