Macroevolution: Pattern and Process - Softcover

Stanley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080185735X ISBN 13: 9780801857355

Publisher: John Hopkins University Press, 1998

Synopsis

In this text, the author addresses, from a palaeobiologist's perspective, the question of whether punctuated equilibria - the view, popularized by Stephen Jay Gould among others, that species remain evolutionarily static for long periods of time, with substantial genetic changes and the development of new adaptive strategies occurring only during speciation, or gradualism - the view that large-scale changes result from continual and successive small-scale changes, offers the best account of the history of life. Coming down on the side of those who favour the model of punctuated equilibria, Stanley argues that only "quantum speciation" (rapid and radically divergent), can explain the story of life revealed in the fossil record; macroevolution, he contends, cannot be attributed to microevolutionary forces such as mutation, genetic drift and natural selection. Instead, he posits a series of processes, including species selection, phyletic drift and directed speciation, to accounnt for large-scale patterns.

About this title

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'.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080185735X
• ISBN 13: 9780801857355
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 376