Product Description

In 1972 Stephen Jay Gould took the scientific world by storm with his paper on punctuated equilibrium, written with Niles Eldredge. Challenging a core assumption of Darwin's theory of evolution, it launched the career of one of the most influential evolutionary biologists of our time--perhaps the best known since Darwin.

Now, thirty-five years later, and five years after his untimely death, Punctuated Equilibrium (originally published as the central chapter of Gould's masterwork, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory) offers his only book-length testament on an idea he fiercely promoted, repeatedly refined, and tirelessly defended. Punctuated equilibrium holds that the great majority of species originate in geological moments (punctuations) and persist in stasis. The idea was hotly debated because it forced biologists to rethink entrenched ideas about evolutionary patterns and processes. But as Gould shows here in his typically exhaustive coverage, the idea has become the foundation of a new view of hierarchical selection and macroevolution.

What emerges strikingly from this book is that punctuated equilibrium represents a much broader paradigm about the nature of change--a worldview that may be judged as a distinctive and important movement within recent intellectual history. Indeed we may now be living within a punctuation, and our awareness of what this means may be the enduring legacy of one of America's best-loved scientists.

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Palaeontology wars        Rating:

This book was originally the central chapter of Gould's masterpiece, "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory". It would have benefited greatly from a substantial re-write to make it more useful to the non-specialist reader. The technical terminology makes the book hard going.

You pretty much need a dictionary by your side as you read - not that it helps much with the more arcane terminology. There is no Glossary, which I find incredible for a book of this type.

I would not recommend this book to the general reader who just wants to understand the basics of punctuated equilibrium. The non-specialist will give up after the first dozen pages. Reading this book was an agonising experience for a non-palaeontologist like me.

To follow the book, you need to be familiar with the details of Darwin's evolutionary theory and with the technicalities of formal naming and classification of species (cladistics) as well as the technical jargon of palaeontology and geological classifications of strata. Even thus prepared, the non-specialist will find the book hard going.

Here is a fairly typical sample of what the reader faces: "The four taxa represent good biospecies, based on absence of hybrids in sympatry, and on extensive electrophoretic study (Michaux, 1987) showing distinct separation among species and no detectable cryptic groupings (Michaux ,1989) within any species. Michaux then used canonical discriminant analysis to achieve clear morphometric distinction among the species".

Not only is the technical jargon daunting, but one also has to navigate through Gould's often opaque style of writing.

Gould is generally fair in presenting the arguments of his critics. However, he often employs a provocative style in presenting his case. He does not pick fights with individuals (at least not in this book) - but rather chooses to criticise the prevalent beliefs of a whole profession. Such a style must inevitably create friction among professional colleagues.

However, having said that, Gould and Eldredge were responsible for one of the most significant advances in evolution (punctuated equilibrium) since Darwin, and it was probably inevitable that such radical views would generate controversy. And also be seized on with relish by partisans of creationism.

But all is not lost. Gould includes a 63-page Appendix that is very readable by the layman. The Appendix deals with the controversies aroused by punctuated equilibrium in the broader media and academic communities outside palaeontology. The "hijacking" of punctuated equilibrium by creationists to debunk Darwin is well-covered and very interesting. Thankfully, Gould explains where creationist views are ignorant, wrong or dishonest - often all three.

The Appendix (pages 317 - 319) also contains the best description of punctuated equilibrium for the non-specialist in the whole book, in two passages quoted from Colin Tudge and James Gleick. Readers would benefit by referring to these quotes as they plough through the rest of the book.

The less useful section of the Appendix is where Gould answers (or perhaps provokes anew) his critics. Some of these "attacks" warmed over by Gould are legitimate scientific criticisms, some are personal vendettas against him and some are shameless mis-use of his work to push philosophical or religious bandwagons.

Gould himself is not an innocent bystander in any of these tiffs. But I doubt if any lay reader could figure out where the truth lies. Only those who have followed the controversies blow by blow over the years have any hope of forming a balanced opinion of the combatants.

Anyway, who cares about these personal conflicts? What matters is the substance of Gould's contribution to palaeontology, and that is great indeed.

But I suppose such unedifying ephemera might appeal to readers interested in raking over academic tittle tattle and feuds, micro-scandals, gossip and the like from years gone by.

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