Ch. 22.4 The Origin of Species

Question 1

Punctuated Equilibria

Answer 1

In evolutionary biology, punctuated equilibrium is a theory that proposes that once a species appears in the fossil record, the population will become stable, showing little evolutionary change for most of its geological history.

Suggests that speciation occurred relatively rapidly. Fossil records this short often cannot be distinguished in fossil strata, in part because the rate of sediment accumulation may be too slow to separate layers this close in time. The species would seem to have appeared suddenly, and then lingered with little or no change before becoming extinct.