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We pass through this nice world, but once. For many more see the related link for more. As a paleontologist by profession this was evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould's area of expertise. Although revered as a great scientist Gould has received some criticism from fellow believers in evolution for his candid comments about the nature of the fossil record. He referred to the fossil record in relation to evolution in the following way:

"The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution."

Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), 'Is a new and general theory of evolution emerging?' Paleobiology, vol.6(1), January 1980,p. 127.

"All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms; transitions between the major groups are characteristically abrupt."

Stephen Jay Gould 'The return of hopeful monsters'. Natural History, vol. LXXXVI(6), June-July 1977, p. 24.

"The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils. Yet Darwin was so wedded to gradualism that he wagered his entire theory on a denial of this literal record:

The geological record is (here Gould is quoting Darwin) extremely imperfect and this fact will to a large extent explain why we do not find intermediate varieties, connecting together all the extinct and existing forms of life by the finest graduated steps. He who rejects these views on the nature of the geological record will rightly reject my whole theory. (end of quote)

Darwin's argument still persists as the favored escape of most paleontologists from the embarrassment of a record that seems to show so little of evolution. In exposing its cultural and methodological roots, I wish in no way to impugn the potential validity of gradualism (for all general views have similar roots). I wish only to point out that it was never "seen" in the rocks.

Paleontologists have paid an exorbitant price for Darwin's argument. We fancy ourselves as the only true students of life's history, yet to preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection we view our data as so bad that we never see the very process we profess to study."

Stephen Jay Gould 'Evolution's erratic pace'. Natural History, vol. LXXXVI95), May 1977, p.14.

Gould's commitment to Darwinian evolution would not allow him to abandon it. However what the evidence shows is clear from these statements of Gould, no matter what he makes of them.

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What did jay gould invent?

Jay Gould did not invent anything. He is known for being a railroad builder and financier. He had a reputation for doing things illegally and was thought ruthless.


What evidence did Stephen Jay Gould use to support his theory?

The discontinuities in the fossil record that seemed to show that some species or taxons were in a state of non-evolution and then seemed to go through a burst of rapid evolutionary change. This is really only seen in the fossil record and does not have a lot of support in disciplines such as molecular genetic, which genetic divergence back through time in today's genomes.


The idea that new species occur suddenly in the fossil record followed by long periods of little change is called?

This is the idea called punctuated equilibria, by paleontologists Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge. It explains the patterns seen in the fossil record.


How is the punctuated equilibrium a better model for dealing with gaps and missing links in fossil records?

Answer: The late evolutionary professor of Palaeontology Stephen Jay Gould, proposed an evolutionary theory called 'punctuated equilibrium' to explain the evidence he found in the fossil record. His theory essentially meant that evolution proceeded by 'jumps' rather than gradually as Darwin proposed.The evidence was the fact (still the case today), that the many intermediate forms that are required by evolution to proceed in the standard Darwinian manner just do not exist. Gould once stated that 'The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches … in any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the gradual transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and "fully formed." (Stephen Jay Gould, Evolution's erratic pace, Natural History 86(5):14, May 1977.)The idea was that these 'jumps' occurred in small isolated populations which were thus not as likely to be fossilised. Thus Gould together with Niles Eldredge, explained the large, seemingly unbridgeable gaps in the fossil record, the study of which he was an expert.


How Do You Write an Assertion Statement?

To write an assertion you introduce the quote or example, document the quote or example, then add commentary. If it is a quote from a book, then it will look like this. Intro to quote. "Quote" then (page # in parenthesis) then a period. Commentary (why you picked the quote, about the quote, etc). Hope this helped! =)