In Macroevolution, Steven Stanley addresses, from a paleobiologist's perspective, the question of whether punctuated equilibria or gradualism offers the best account of the history of life. Punctuated equilibria, a view popularized by Stephen Jay Gould among others, holds that species remain evolutionarily static for long periods of time and undergo substantial genetic changes and develop new, primarily adaptive, strategies during speciation. In contrast, gradualism views large-scale changes as the result of continual and successive small-scale changes. Coming down on the side of those who favor the model of punctuated equilibria, Stanley argues that only "quantum speciation" (speciation that is rapid and radically divergent) can explain the story of life revealed in the fossil record; macroevolutionary trends, he contends, can be explained by selection among species and, to a lesser extent, by phylogenetic drift and directed speciation.

Review

"Stanley offers an imaginative treatment of almost every issue in macroevolution; by drawing on a wealth of paleontological and neontological information and on the mechanistic theory of evolution, he achieves a clear, informative, stimulating synthesis. This is perhaps the most important treatment of macroevolution in almost thirty years, and revivifies a subject too long dormant." -- Douglas J. Futuyama, American Scientist

"Not only is a wealth of evidence presented to support the model of punctuated equilibria, but Stanley's stream of refreshing insights into classic topics of evolution, such as living fossils, mass extinctions and adaptive radiations add further weight to the validity of the general model." -- Simon Conway Morris, Geological Magazine

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