Excerpts: Stephen Jay Gould, (...), died Monday morning (May 20)
in Manhattan of metastasized lung cancer. Gould, along with
Niles Eldredge, a paleontologist at New York's Museum of Natural
History, developed an evolutionary theory called "punctuated
equilibrium," where long periods of evolutionary stability are
broken by shorter spurts of evolutionary change, perhaps sparked
by external events such as climate change or the impact of a
comet. The theory contrasts with more traditional evolutionists,
who believe evolution is a slow, steady process occurring at a
nearly constant rate.