This heuristic was also applied to the theory of punctuated equilibrium proposed by Niles Eldredge and Gould.

Apart from the commonly cited example of water turning to steam with increased temperature, Gould and Eldredge noted another analogy in information theory, " with its jargon of equilibrium, steady state, and homeostasis maintained by negative feedback ," and " extremely rapid transitions that occur with positive feedback.

Lewontin, Gould and Eldredge were thus more interested in dialectical materialism as a heuristic, than a dogmatic form of ' truth ' or a statement of their politics.

His theory of peripatric speciation ( a more precise form of allopatric speciation which he advanced ), based on his work on birds, is still considered a leading mode of speciation, and was the theoretical underpinning for the theory of punctuated equilibrium, proposed by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould.

This and other data led Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge to publish the seminal paper on punctuated equilibrium in 1971.

It is a term coined by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge to contrast with their model of punctuated equilibrium, which is gradualist itself, but argues that most evolution is marked by long periods of evolutionary stability ( called stasis ), which is punctuated by rare instances of branching evolution.

In 1972, paleontologists Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould published a landmark paper developing this theory and called it punctuated equilibria.

Eldredge and Gould proposed that the degree of gradualism commonly attributed to Charles Darwin is virtually nonexistent in the fossil record, and that stasis dominates the history of most fossil species.

Although some of the basic workings of the theory were proposed and identified by Mayr in 1954, historians of science generally recognize the 1972 paper by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould as the foundational document of the new paleobiological research program.

Punctuated equilibrium differs from Mayr's hypothesis mainly in that Eldredge and Gould placed considerably greater emphasis on stasis, whereas Mayr was generally concerned with explaining the morphological discontinuity ( or " sudden jumps ") found in the fossil record.

A year before their 1972 Eldredge and Gould paper, Niles Eldredge published a paper in the journal Evolution which suggested that gradual evolution was seldom seen in the fossil record and argued that Ernst Mayr's standard mechanism of allopatric speciation might suggest a possible resolution.

I coined the term punctuated equilibrium and wrote most of our 1972 paper, but Niles is the proper first author in our pairing of Eldredge and Gould.

John Wilkins and Gareth Nelson have argued that French architect Pierre Trémaux proposed an " anticipation of the theory of punctuated equilibrium of Gould and Eldredge.

When Eldredge and Gould published their 1972 paper, allopatric speciation was considered the " standard " theory of speciation.

Before Eldredge and Gould alerted their colleagues to the prominence of stasis in the fossil record, most evolutionists considered stasis to be rare or unimportant.

Second, Eldredge and Gould relied upon an entirely different mechanism.

Where Simpson relied upon a synergistic interaction between genetic drift and a shift in the adaptive fitness landscape, Eldredge and Gould relied upon ordinary speciation, particularly Ernst Mayr's concept of allopatric speciation.

" Eldredge and Gould, believing that evolution jumps between stability and relative rapidity, are described as " discrete variable speedists ," and " in this respect they are genuinely radical.

" It is this particular commitment that Eldredge and Gould have aimed to overturn.

John Lyne and Henry Howe, in a more positive evaluation, states that " re-analysis of existing fossil data has shown, to the increasing satisfaction of the paleontological community, that Eldredge and Gould were correct in identifying periods of evolutionary stasis which are interrupted by much shorter periods of evolutionary change.

* Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism-by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould

* Punctuated Equilibria: The Tempo and Mode of Evolution Reconsidered-by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge

* Punctuated Equilibrium Comes of Age-by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge

Mayr later complimented Eldredge and Gould's paper, stating that evolutionary stasis had been " unexpected by most evolutionary biologists " and that punctuated equilibrium " had a major impact on paleontology and evolutionary biology.

Gould's most significant contribution to science was the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which he developed with Niles Eldredge in 1972.

Eldredge notes that in Dawkins ' book A Devil's Chaplain, which was published just before Eldredge's book, " Richard Dawkins comments on what he sees as the main difference between his position and that of the late Stephen Jay Gould.

In 1972, the notion of gradualism in evolution was challenged by a theory of " punctuated equilibrium " put forward by Gould and Niles Eldredge, proposing evolutionary changes could occur in relatively rapid spurts, when selective pressures were heightened, punctuating long periods of morphological stability, as well-adapted organisms coped successfully in their respective environments.

The first settler in Randall was Daniel T. Eldredge, who located on Mound Prairie in Randall in the autumn of 1836.

Before opening night, he insists they marry, but Joyce resists his proposal, hiding the fact she is married to Gordon Heath ( John Eldredge ), an ineffectual but devoted man who was financially ruined by their marriage.

He was the son of Rowland Rogers, a former ship captain, bookkeeper, and grocer, and Mary Eldredge Huttleston Rogers.

Lieutenant Thomas Roberts was awarded the Military Cross and Sergeant Ivan Eldredge the Military Medal for their actions on 18 August, when they led their sections in an out-flanking movement and the capture of a key enemy machine gun position.

Although these approaches were not always welcomed ( at least initially ) by specialists in the subjects examined, SOC has nevertheless become established as a strong candidate for explaining a number of natural phenomena, including: earthquakes ( which, long before SOC was discovered, were known as a source of scale-invariant behaviour such as the Gutenberg-Richter law describing the statistical distribution of earthquake sizes, and the Omori law describing the frequency of aftershocks ); solar flares ; fluctuations in economic systems such as financial markets ( references to SOC are common in econophysics ); landscape formation ; forest fires ; landslides ; epidemics ; and biological evolution ( where SOC has been invoked, for example, as the dynamical mechanism behind the theory of " punctuated equilibria " put forward by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould ).

Goodhue was born in Pomfret, Connecticut to Charles Wells Goodhue and his second wife, Helen ( Eldredge ) Grosvenor Goodhue.

While living in Los Angeles Eldredge was looking for a " worldview.

The Eldredge was an American automobile manufactured from 1903 until 1906.

The 1904 Eldredge Runabout was a runabout model.

The 1904 Eldredge Tonneau was a tonneau model.

In his book The Blind Watchmaker, Dawkins argues against the idea that Charles Darwin himself was a constant-rate gradualist, as suggested by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould.

From 2007 to 2009, he was an Associate Editor of the journal Evolution: Education and Outreach founded by Niles Eldredge.

The theory of punctuated equilibrium developed by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge and first presented in 1972 is often mistakenly drawn into the discussion of transitional fossils.

Kim Sterelny ( 2007 ) cites this rapid natural selection as illustrating an important point about periods of relative stasis in the punctuated equilibrium hypothesis of Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould: " In claiming that species typically undergo no further evolutionary change once speciation is complete, they are not claiming that there is no change at all between one generation and the next.

Eldredge began his undergraduate studies in Latin at Columbia University.

Eldredge graduated summa cum laude from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1965, and enrolled in the university's doctoral program while continuing his research at the museum.

In 1969, Eldredge became Curator in the Department of Invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History, a position which he still holds.