BIOEE 1780 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Punctuated Equilibrium, Biostratigraphy, Anagenesis
12 Nov 2016
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Punctuated equilibria and the species concept in paleontology. *speciation can be difficult to distinguish because changes in the morphologies of fossils are often the only clues available, and gaps in the fossil record may leave important transitions undocumented . Anagenesis: refers to wholesale transformation of a lineage from one form to another. In macroevolutionary studies, anagenesis is considered to be an alternative to lineage splitting or speciation. Punctuated equilibria: a model of evolution that proposes that most species undergo relatively little change for most of their geologic history. These periods of stasis are punctuated by brief periods of rapid morphological change, often associated with speciation. This change was too fast to be preserved in the sparse fossil record, thus. Equilibria referred to the stasis in lineages through a fossil sequence, which were creating the appearance of a gap punctuated by bursts of change.
