 In the meantime, PE also inspired new empirical research in paleontology, with scientists doing statistical analysis of large fossil samples to try to assess the relative importance of stasis vs. gradual directional change. This research continues to get more sophisticated, and as it happens, PE has fared reasonably well, empirically (J. Jackson &amp; Cheetham 1999; Hunt 2007; Uyeda, Hansen, Arnold, &amp; Pienaar 2011).