The Episodic Nature of Evolutionary Change
The traditional instilled view of gradualism is argued to have placed blinders on our scientific reasoning. Gradualism has acquisitioned the minds of many, to the prospective that evolution unfolds on a gradualistic canvas. This logic of reasoning holds true for many geological phenomenon such as parallel ridges in the Appalachian Mountains, which the author cites has succumb to the gradual effects of erosion. The fossil record erects a brick wall when moving to a biological system from a physical (such as the aforementioned) in gradualistic philosophy. Species appear to remain static throughout their regime on Earth. New species emerge instantaneously without trace of transitional/preceding forms in older rocks. This supports a view of rapid evolution. Critics and proponents of gradualism point to the fact that the fossil record is vastly incomplete and thus transitional forms are exceedingly rare as we are viewing a few frames of a movie spanning millions of years. The author aims to point out that evolution does not require gradual change in order to proceed. Morphological stasis is undirectional and limited which can be explained by the fact that large centralized populations tend to exhibit a homogenous mixture. Any favorable mutation would be slow in becoming prevalent and most likely fall out of favor with environmental changes before fixation. On the other hand small geographically isolated groups or peripheral groups will respond independently to the extreme pressures exerted at a species borders. In this case a favorable mutation would manifest quickly becoming fixated in that particular sub-population. It is these small isolated populations that are responsible for the majority of speciation. This mode of evolution is punctuated equilibria, species remain virtually static throughout their rein with occasional seeds of rapid speciation blossoming in isolated populations. This is exactly what...