Confusion With Punctuated Equilibrium
It is a popular misconception that punctuated equilibrium is a saltationist theory, often mistaken for Richard Goldschmidt's hypothesis of "Hopeful Monsters." However, punctuated equilibrium refers instead to a pattern of evolution where most speciation occurs relatively rapidly from a geological perspective (tens of thousands of years instead of millions of years), but through neo-Darwinian evolution, not by saltations.
Read more about this topic: Saltation (biology)
Famous quotes containing the words confusion and/or equilibrium:
“Logic is the last scientific ingredient of Philosophy; its extraction leaves behind only a confusion of non-scientific, pseudo problems.”
—Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970)
“They who feel cannot keep their minds in the equilibrium of a pair of scales: fear and hope have no equiponderant weights.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)