November 04, 2023

69- Punctuated Equilibrium, Phyletic Gradualism and Creationist Philosophy

8 minutes

This episode discusses what it says on the tin- two different models of the pace at which evolution happens. Punctuated equilibrium comes to us courtesy of Niles Eldredge and Steve Gould in the 1970s. We won't do a deep dive on which model is considered correct in this episode. However, punctuated equilibrium was appropriated by creationists in the 1980s as this issue became political- leading us to a convenient tangent on what exactly creationist philosophy is.

Sources for this episode:

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Beardsley, T. (1990), Punctuated Equilibrium. Scientific American 262(3): 36-41.Bino, G., Kingsford, R. T., Archer, M., Connolly, J. H., Day, J., Dias, K., Goldney, D., Gongora, J., Grant, T., Griffiths, J., Hawke, T., Klamt, M., Lunney, D., Mijangos, L., Munks, S., Sherwin, W., Serena, M., Temple-Smith, P., Thomas, J., Williams, G. and Whittington, C. (2019), The platypus: evolutionary history, biology, and an uncertain future. Journal of Mammology 100(2): 308-327.

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Darwin 1859

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Rowe, T., Rich, T. H., Vickers-Rich, P., Springers, M. and Woodbourne, M. O. (2008), The oldest platypus and its bearing on divergence timing of the platypus and echidna clades. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105(4): 1238-1242.

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Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Phyletic gradualism (online) (Access date unknown).

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