He also suggested that as soon as life emerged it would gradually grow in complexity. Consistent with evolutionary theories of punctuated equilibrium, Marxists believe that new forms in nature are not the result of gradual change but that quantitative multiplication gradually builds up momentum for a "leap" in nature which produces a change or a new species. They believe that incidental to one of these leaps (and leap may be regarded as a set of genetic mutations) the phenomenon of consciousness emerged.