Time Frames: The Evolution of Punctuated Equilibria

by Niles Eldredge

Book Overview

Scientists have recently begun to question one of the pillars of modern thought--Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Certainly evolution occurs; but if it is a slow, continuous process by which one species gradually modifies itself into a new one, as Darwin believed, why are there so many missing links in the fossil records? Two eminent scientists, Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, startled the world by challenging Darwin's cherished beliefs...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691024359
• ISBN13: 9780691024356
• Release Date: October 1989
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

researching the history of evolution

Dr. Eldredge is a curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. He and Dr. Stephen J Gould developed what may be the most critical appendix to Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection since Ernst Mayr's biological species concept. In short the theory of punctuated equilibria states that species are in evolutionary stasis for long periods of time and when a useful adaptation appears it will spread rapidly through the population. It is not the theory that makes this book a good read. It is the way that the author describes how he and Dr. Gould came to it. Dr. Eldredge is an expert on trilobites, a group of aquatic arthropods that went extinct before the dinosaurs appeared. Following him as he explorers the fossil record of these creatures is as much a lesson in perseverance and good science as it is in evolutionary theory. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in any field of organismal biology, it would be a "must read" for people who are particularly interested in evolution and or paleontology.

researching the history of evolution

Dr. Eldredge is a curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. He and Dr. Stephen J Gould developed what may be the most critical appendix to Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection since Ernst Mayr's biological species concept. In short the theory of punctuated equilibria states that species are in evolutionary stasis for long periods of time and when a useful adaptation appears it will spread rapidly through the population. It is not the theory that makes this book a good read. It is the way that the author describes how he and Dr. Gould came to it. Dr. Eldredge is an expert on trilobites, a group of aquatic arthropods that went extinct before the dinosaurs appeared. Following him as he explorers the fossil record of these creatures is as much a lesson in perseverance and good science as it is in evolutionary theory. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in any field of organismal biology, it would be a "must read" for people who are particularly interested in evolution and or paleontology.

An Excellent Memoir on Punctuated Equilibria

This is yet another fine book on science which deserves to be republished. Originally published by Simon and Schuster, "Time Frames" is a well written account by noted paleobiologist Niles Eldredge on his doctoral research on the systematics and evolutionary history of the North American Devonian trilobite genus which led to the development of the theory of "Punctuated Equilibrium"; the theory was first introduced in a symposium volume on paleontology as the subject of an article written by Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould. Eldredge offers a fascinating glimpse into field and theoretical paleontological research which should appeal to those interested in science. Why it is now out of print again is surely a mystery to me.