title: Is there room for punctuated equilibrium in macroevolution?
abstract: The long-controversial theory of punctuated equilibrium (PE) asserts that speciation causes rapid evolution against a backdrop of stasis. PE is currently undergoing a resurgence driven by new developments in statistical methods. However, we argue that PE is actually a tangle of four unnecessarily conflated questions: (i) is evolution gradualistic or pulsed? (ii) does trait evolution occur mainly at speciation or within a lineage? (iii) are changes at speciation adaptive or neutral? and (iv) how important is species selection in shaping patterns of diversity? We discuss progress towards answering these four questions but argue that combining these conceptually distinct ideas under the single framework of PE is distracting and confusing, and more likely to hinder progress than to spur it.
authors: Department of Biological Sciences and Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA. Electronic address: mwpennell@gmail.com.
authors: Matthew W
authors: MW
authors: Pennell
authors: Department of Biological Sciences and Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA.
authors: Luke J
authors: LJ
authors: Harmon
authors: Department of Biological Sciences and Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA.
authors: Josef C
authors: JC
authors: Uyeda
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010802:Phylogeny; D009626:Terminology as Topic
keywords: comparative methods; macroevolution; paleobiology; phylogenetics; punctuated equilibrium