That is the title of a post by Sean Carroll. Actually that is a part of the title. The whole title is "The Evolution of Evolution: Gradualism, or Punctuated Equilibrium?" And the last part of that title is wrong. The article does not discuss the differences between gradualism and punctuated equilibrium. Sean's article can be found
on Sean's blog. The article discusses an article posted on Nature
Does evolutionary theory need a rethink?. The Nature article is a viewpoint article with discussions between 2 evolutionary scientists who have different viewpoints as to where the theory of evolution needs to go. One viewpoint is that there needs to be an almost complete revision of the theory to take in new points of view. The other viewpoint is that current evolutionary theory already includes them, so there is no reason to make any drastic revisions.
Sean agrees with the second viewpoint although he does admit that he knows almost nothing about evolutionary theory. Having read through the Nature article I agree with Sean. What I know about evolutionary theory says that everything that the first viewpoint is already being researched.
I don't know where Sean got the idea that this is a contest between gradualism and punctuated equilibrium. Those terms are never used in the Nature article and the discussions do not in any way address that argument.
And please everybody. Don't respond if somebody tries to turn this thread into a discussion of Creationism. Just ignore any such replies so that we can carry on a rational discussion if there is anybody who is interested.
Bill Gill
